Thursday, March 19, 2009

Happy new Iranian year, Norouz :-)

Tomorrow around 12:43':30" the Iranian year will turn and it will be the new year. Iranians use their own solar calender which is an astronomicalsolar calendar and one of the longest chronological records in history and is currently used inIran and Afghanistan as the main official calendar. Beginning each year on thevernal equinox as precisely determined by astronomical observations from Tehran (or the 52.5°E meridian, which also defines IRST), this makes it more accurate than theGregorian Calendar in being synchronized with the solar year, but harder to work out when a particular date would occur before the New Year preceding that date.

The year is of course based on 12 months based and 4 different seasons of the year which starts with spring and finishes with winter. Iranians also celebrate the last Wednsday night of the year with fireworks. The new year is called Norouz(New day in Persian) which actually is a spring festival is celebrated by setting up a table of 7 different things that their name starts with the letter "S". Usually all the present elements on the table are a symbol of something.

This year my brother's family who live here in Norway are going back to Iran for the new year while I am stuck here. I can't go back because of my military service problem. I haven't served military since I became 18 and if I go back I have to first serve military and then would be allowed to come out to continiue my studies here.

Anyway Happy Norouz, the spring festival to everyone :-)



The picture over here is from a very good friend of mine, Mr. Mohammad E Hesamian

No comments: