Kees Couprie
There are several events directly related to the Persian calendar. These events include:
|
Event
|
Persian date
|
Explanation
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novrooz | First four days of Farvardin (1/1-4) | Celebration of the new year | ||
| Sizdah | 13 Farvardin | Nature's day and the end of celebration. On this day Iranians spent time in a natural environment and "jaunt till night". |
Iran (formerly known as Persia) is an Islamic country. This has two results:
Determining the Persian dates of Islamic events can be done by converting the corresponding Islamic (Hijra) date to the Persian Calendar.
Special thanks to Mohammad Tahani from the Computer Research Center of Islamic Sciences ( CRCIS ) of I.R.Iran (www.noorsoft.org) for all his help.
Here's an overview of the most important Islamic events for Iran.
| Islamic Date | Event | Explanation |
| 9 Muharram (1/9) | Tasua | This day is to veneration for the brother of Imam Hussein, Hazrat Abbas. |
| 10 Muharram (1/10) | Ashura' | Shi'a holiday celebrating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Devout Shi'a beat themselves with chains and even barbed wire in memory of the martyrdom. |
| 20 Safar (2/20) | Arbain | The 40th day of the Imam Hussein martyrdom (the 3rd Imam). |
| 28 Safar (2/28) | decease of Nabi and the martyrdom of Imam Hasan (the 2nd Imam). | |
| 30 Safar (2/30) | martyrdom of Imam Reza (the 8th Imam). | |
| 17 Rabi' I (3/12) | The birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). | |
| 3 Jumada II (6/3) | the martyrdom of "Fatemh", daughter of Prophet Muhammad. | |
| 20 Jumada II (6/20) |
"Women's day" |
Birthday of "Fatemh" (Peace be upon Her), daughter of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and spouse of Imam Ali (Peace be upon Him). |
| 13 Rajab (7/13) | "Father's day" | birthday of Imam Ali (the 1st Imam). |
| 27 Rajab (7/27) | Lailat al Miraj | The Ascent of the Prophet (PBUH). |
| 15 Sha'ban (8/15) | Lailat al Bara'a | birthday of Imam Mahdi (the 12th Imam). |
| Ramadan (9/1 to 30) | Month of fasting | Believers take no food, drink or tobacco from sunrise
to sunset, and abstain from sexual relations. In many cities, the start
of the fast is marked each day by a drummer who beats the bounds of each
district and the end of the fast by the firing of a cannon. Technically,
the fast begins each day at dawn, which for Muslims comes nearly two hours
before sunrise. Sunrise marks the end of the first period of prayer. Dawn
is reckoned as the time when the sun's first light is seen on the horizon,
or, according to a Hadith, when a white cord may be distinguished from a
black cord. Traditionally, the fast is broken with a bowl of soup and a
special salad (fattoush) but the evening breakfast ('iftar) is often an
opportunity for revelling which may go on late into the night.
Ramadan is not a holiday, but work schedules may be seriously disrupted or altered. It is known as Hari Rayah in Asia. |
| 21 Ramadan (9/21) | martyrdom of Imam Ali. | |
| 19 or 21 or 23 Ramadan (9/19 or 9/21 or 9/23) |
Lailat al Qadr | Evening of destiny, revelation of the Qur'an. Muslims pray that Allah will grant them a good destiny. |
| Last Friday in Ramadan | Quds Day | A recent addition to the calendar, in memory of Jerusalem. |
| 1 Shawwal (10/1) | 'Id al Fitr | This feast marks the end of Ramadan. In Iran this event is one day only! |
| 25 Shawwal (10/25) | martyrdom of Imam Jafar Sadegh (the 6th Imam). | |
| 9 Dhu 'l-Qa'dah (11/9) | Arafat Day | The eve of Adha. |
| 10 Dhu al Hijja (12/10) | 'Id al Adha | Festival of sacrifice. The culmination of the Hajj or holy pilgrimage. In Iran this event is one day only! |
| 18 Dhu al Hijja (12/18) | 'Id al kader | In this day the Prophet Mohammad nominated Imam Ali as his successor. |
Some remarks:
Determining the Persian (Shamsi) date of an Islamic event, festival, holiday or feast can be done by using the FirstIslamicDateInPersianYear and LastIslamicDateInPersianYear routines.
Since the Islamic year is approximately 11 days shorter than the Persian (Shamsi) year, it possible that the specified Islamic event, festival, holiday or feast occurs twice in the given Persian (Shamsi) year. Use LastIslamicDateInPersianYear to get the Julian Day Number of the last occurence of that date in the given Persian (Shamsi) year. If you want to know the first occurence, you can use FirstIslamicDateInPersianYear
These examples will determine the date of 'Id al Fitr (1 Shawwal), the end of Ramadan in the Persian years 1403 and 1404.
firstIdAlFitr = FirstIslamicDateInPersianYear(1403, 10, 1) ' this results in 2460411, which is the Julian Day Number of 22 Farvardin 1403. laststIdAlFitr = LastIslamicDateInPersianYear(1403, 10, 1) ' this also results in 2460411, which is the Julian Day Number of 22 Farvardin 1403. firstIdAlFitr = FirstIslamicDateInPersianYear(1404, 10, 1) ' this results in 2460766, which is the Julian Day Number of 12 Farvardin 1404. lastIdAlFitr = LastIslamicDateInPersianYear(1404, 10, 1) ' but this results in 2461120, which is the Julian Day Number of 30 Esfand 1404!
FirstIslamicDateInPersianYear, LastIslamicDateInPersianYear, Islamic Events
| Julian Day Number: | 2452191 |
| Civil (Gregorian) date: | Monday, 8 October 2001 |
| Julian date: | Monday, 25 September 2001 |
| Hebrew date: | yom sheni, 21 Tishri 5762 |
| Islamic date: | Al-`iTHnain, 20 Rajab 1422 |
| Persian date: | Doshanbeh, 16 Mehr 1380 |
| Back to Calendar Math. |
Kees Couprie |
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