Celebrations
Iran nation is packed with plenty of annual cultural and religious festivals that provide a window into the everyday lives of the masses here.The popular festivals celebrated in Iran truly reflect the culture and heritage of the region which is rich and glorious. Some of the popular ones include...
The first day of the Iranian calendar falls on the March equinox, the first day of spring, around 21 March. In the 11th century CE the Iranian calendar was reformed in order to fix the beginning of the calendar year, i.e. Nowruz, at the vernal equinox. Accordingly, the definition of Nowruz given by the Iranian scientist Tusi was the following: "the first day of the official New Year [Nowruz] was always the day on which the sun entered Aries before noon." Nowruz is the first day of Farvardin, the first month of the Iranian solar calendar.
The longest and darkest night of the year marks "the night opening the initial forty-day period of the three-month winter" from which the name Chelleh, "fortieth", derives. “Yalda Night” was one of the holy nights in ancient Iran, included in the official calendar of the ancient Iranians from 502 BC during the time of Darius I. The festivities that take place on this night are an ancient tradition
Festival of Fire (Chaharshanbe Suri) is held The Last Wednesday of a year (marks the arrival spring). Fire and light hoped for health and happiness through the coming year. This is the ancient festival of Iran, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikestan and Turkey and date goes back at least 1700 BCE. Iranians celebrate an old tradition called “Chahar Shanbeh Suri”.
Mehregan is one of the most ancient Iranian festivals known, dating back at least as far as the earliest Aryans (Iranians). According to Dr. Taqizadeh, (1938, p. 38: "The feast of Mithra or baga was, no doubt, one of the most popular if not the greatest of all the festivals in ancient Iran, where it was celebrated with the greatest attention. This was originally a pre-Zoroastrian and old Aryan feast consecrated to the sun god, and its place in the Old-Persian calendar was surely in the month belonging to this deity.
