Nowruz: the Persian New Year at the equinox

Nowruz ('new day', Persian نوروز) is the Iranian and wider Persianate New Year at the March (northward) equinox, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere and 1 Farvardin of the Solar Hijri calendar, the official calendar of Iran (and, with the month names Hamal etc., of Afghanistan). It is more than 3,000 years old in its roots, pre-Islamic and today celebrated by people of many faiths.

When Nowruz begins

The Solar Hijri year begins at the moment of the vernal equinox (tahvil-e sal). If the equinox falls before noon in Iran, that day is 1 Farvardin (Nowruz); if it falls after noon, the next day is. The Calendar Center of the Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, computes and publishes the moment. Times are given in Iran Standard Time, UTC+3:30, all year: Iran's parliament abolished daylight saving time in 2022 (law of March/May 2022; the last DST period ended 21 September 2022), so there is no +4:30 in March any more.

Haft-sin, Chaharshanbe Suri, Sizdah Bedar

The haft-sin table (سفره هفت‌سین): seven items whose Persian names begin with the letter sin (s): sabzeh (sprouted wheat or lentils, rebirth), samanu (sweet wheat-germ pudding, plenty), senjed (oleaster fruit, love), sir (garlic, health), sib (apple, beauty), somāq (sumac, the sunrise), serkeh (vinegar, patience and age). Usually also a mirror, candles, painted eggs, a goldfish in a bowl, coins, hyacinth (sonbol), and a book (the Quran, the Divan of Hafez or the Shahnameh). Families gather around it at the moment of the equinox.

Chaharshanbe Suri ('festive Wednesday'): on the evening before the last Wednesday of the year (Tuesday night) people light bonfires and jump over them, saying 'zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man' ('my yellowness (sickliness) to you, your redness (vitality) to me'). Also fireworks, qashoq-zani (spoon-banging from door to door) and ajil (mixed nuts).

Sizdah Bedar ('thirteen out of doors'), 13 Farvardin: the last day of the Nowruz holidays is spent outdoors with picnics; the sabzeh from the haft-sin is thrown into running water, and young people knot blades of grass while making a wish.

Khaneh-tekani (thorough spring cleaning before the New Year), new clothes, visits to elders first (did-o-bazdid), gifts of money to children (eidi), the herald figure Haji Firuz in Iran; in Afghanistan haft-mewa (seven dried fruits in syrup) and the Jahenda Bala flag-raising at Mazar-i-Sharif; in Central Asia sumalak (Uzbek; Tajik sumanak, Kazakh sümelek) (sprouted-wheat dish cooked overnight); in Azerbaijan the four Tuesdays before Novruz (water, fire, wind, earth), samani and the khoncha tray; among Kurds bonfires and the legend of Kawa the blacksmith.

Where it is celebrated

Iran; Afghanistan; Kurdish regions of Iraq, Türkiye, Syria and Iran; Azerbaijan; Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan; parts of Pakistan and India (also by Parsis and Iranian Zoroastrians, and the Bahá'í and Ismaili communities); the Caucasus and the Balkans in places; and a large diaspora (USA, Canada, Germany, UK, Sweden, Australia).

Inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009 (decision 4.COM, as 'Novruz, Nowrouz, Nooruz, Navruz, Nauroz, Nevruz', seven states: Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Türkiye, Uzbekistan) and re-inscribed in extended form in 2016 (decision 11.COM 10.B.1, element 01161, 'Nawrouz, Novruz, Nowrouz, Nowrouz, Nawrouz, Nauryz, Nooruz, Nowruz, Navruz, Nevruz, Nowruz, Navruz') by twelve states: the seven plus Afghanistan, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. The UN General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Nowruz in 2010.

The equinox is calculated from the Sun's apparent position (PyEphem) and agrees with the US Naval Observatory to the minute; Iran's Calendar Center at the Institute of Geophysics, University of Tehran, publishes the official moment.