Iran
ایران
Furthest along · Volume 1
Orientation
Volume I of this archive is Iran. What is recorded here is living cultural practice — observances still kept by the people who keep them, rather than historical reconstruction — added one entry at a time as its sources are verified.
Most of it is governed by a calendar rather than by a place. Iranian civil life runs on the Solar Hijri calendar, whose year begins at the spring equinox, and most entries here fall on a fixed day within it. Some follow the Islamic lunar calendar instead, so they move roughly eleven days earlier in the Gregorian year each year. Another is recorded as a season rather than a day, because its timing is set by a harvest. This is why the archive stores calendar rules and derives dates from them, and why every date it shows states how well it is known.
Read the page in two passes: "Happening soon here" answers when, and "Entries" answers what. Each entry carries what happens, why it matters to the people who keep it, what is expected of a visitor, and the material it was written from.
One thing to understand about the etiquette in these entries: much of it is not a custom of the festival but Iranian law that applies in public everywhere — dress, photography, alcohol — and each entry says so where that is the case. Where the archive does not know what is expected of a visitor, it records that as unknown rather than leaving the field empty.
This is not a survey of everything practised in Iran. It is what has been sourced and reviewed so far, and it is deliberately shorter than the truth.
Happening soon here
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مهرگان
Calculated date
شب یلدا
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جشن سده
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عید فطر
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چهارشنبهسوری
Entries
9 entries
Chaharshanbe Suri
چهارشنبهسوری
Chaharshanbe Suri (چهارشنبهسوری) is an Iranian festival held on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year. It is a prelude to Nowruz.
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Calculated date
Eid al-Adha
عید قربان
Eid al-Adha falls on the tenth day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It commemorates Abraham’s willingness to obey God’s command.
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Estimated date
Eid al-Fitr
عید فطر
Eid-e Fitr is a one- or two-day national holiday in Iran on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth Islamic lunar month. It marks the end of Ramadan’s dawn-to-dusk fasting.
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Gholabgiri (Kashan rosewater harvest)
گلابگیری کاشان
Golabgiri is the annual rosewater distillation season in Kashan County, chiefly Qamsar and Niasar. It runs from mid-May to mid-June.
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Sometime in this period
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Jashn-e Sadeh
جشن سده
Jashn-e Sadeh (جشن سده) is a mid-winter feast in which people gather around a fire. It is celebrated annually on 30 January, the 10th of Bahman.
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Jashn-e Tirgan
جشن تیرگان
Tirgan (تیرگان, Tirgān) is an ancient Iranian midsummer rain and water festival. It is celebrated on the 13th day of Tir, falling on 2, 3 or 4 July.
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Mehregan
مهرگان
Mehregan (مهرگان) is a Zoroastrian and Iranian autumn festival. It is celebrated on the 16th day of Mehr in the Iranian calendar and honours Mithra.
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Shab-e Yalda
شب یلدا
Shab-e Yalda, also called Shab-e Chelleh, marks the longest night of the year and symbolises the victory of light over darkness. It usually falls on 20 or 21 December.
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Calculated date
Sizdah Bedar
سیزدهبدر
Sizdah Be-dar (سیزدهبدر, sīzdæh bedar) is an Iranian festival on the thirteenth day of Farvardin, in early April. Spent outdoors, it marks the end of the Nowruz holiday period.
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