Moonwise

Zoroastrian Year 1372
Mar/Aug/Jul 2002 - Mar/Aug/Jul 2003

Zoroastrians have three calendars: Shenshai, Qadimi and Fasli. Each has 365 day years, made up of twelve months of 30 days, followed by five days. After the Islamic conquest of Iran, many Zoroastrians fled to India, where they became known as Parsis (‘Persians’). The calendar was known to be shorter than the solar year, and an extra 30-day month was supposed to be added every 120 years. However, this was remembered only once, it seems, and only in India in the 12th century CE. The Parsi calendar is called Shenshai (‘Royal’), and the Iranian calendar with its New Year thirty days earlier is called Qadimi (‘Ancient’). Lacking leap year arrangements, the New Year of both of these calendars gradually moves backwards through the seasons. In relation to the Gregorian Calendar, their New Year is a day earlier every four years (except for such years as 2100 when the Gregorian Calendar forgoes a leap day).

Early in the 20th century CE, such was the concern that the festivals were not falling in their proper seasons that a revised calendar was brought in. In this Fasli (‘Seasonal’) Calendar a sixth day is added at the end of the year whenever there is a Gregorian leap day, and the New Year is fixed as the Gregorian 21 March. The Fasli Calendar has become very popular outside India, especially in the West, but many Parsis believe that adding a leap day is against the rules, and they mostly continue to use the Shenshai Calendar. There is a proposal to correct matters by restoring the leap month, but unless this happens, the Shenshai and Qadimi years will continue to start earlier and earlier. Already their New Years have moved from spring through winter and autumn to summer, and the Qadimi Calendar if unrevised will eventually co-incide with the Fasli Calendar in Gregorian Year 2508. The Shenshai Calendar if likewise unrevised will have its New Year fall on 21 March in 2632.

Days start at sunrise.

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