NOU ROUZ

&

NIM ROUZ

Fariborz Rahnamoon

“The
coming of the season at the proper time of the solar year.”

Avesta
Haptan Yasht (Ha -3)

The ancient
Iranian calendar was a solar calendar. The fact is repeatedly documented in the
ancient Avesta writings. One of the most important solar festivals is called
Nou Rouz - the New Year. Nou Rouz literally means the 'New Day' and is
celebrated on the vernal equinox in spring. It is the time of rejuvenation in
nature, the beginning of a new life and what better time can there be to start
the New Year than with nature itself.

Nou Rouz is
celebrated by the people of the lands that once formed the Persian
Empire, irrespective of their present day political borders or
religious beliefs.

Nou Rouz
according to the Persian mythology is believed to date back to about ten
thousand BCE, when Shah Jamshid the Pisdadian king celebrated the first spring
after the end of the last ice age.

The ancient
Zarathushti calendar consists of twelve equal months of 30 days each and
between the last day of the twelfth month and the vernal equinox there are five
free days or six in the case of a leap year. The leap year is automatically
determined by the equinox and not by any belief or human agreement. Every year
the equinox happens about 5 hours 48 minutes 20 seconds (.24190day) latter
whereby automatically by the 4th year it happens 23:13:20 hour latter
making that year a 366 day year.

NIM ROUZ & NOU ROUZ

Nou Rouz is
one of the only scientific New Year celebrated in the world. The calculation
and coining of the word “Nou
Rouz” (New Day) as against “Sal e Nou” (New Year) was
the work of Zarathushtra the sage of ancient Iran,
who was also the first to envisage the concept of Meridian. Zarathushtra calculated the first
meridian and called it “Nim
Rouz”, which means
“Mid Day”. The Meridian of Zarathushtra was located
in ancient Sistan at 62 degrees longitude. Even today that location in Afghanistan is called the Nimruz Province.

When it is
mid day at the Meridian of Zarathushtra (62 degrees longitude) there is
sunshine from Japan the land
of the rising sun to the western tip of Africa.
What better location can there be for an intellectual and scientific meridian.[i]

Similarly
the unequal relation between the revolution and rotation of the earth led
Zarathushtra to calculate and derive the concept of Nou Rouz the New Day. Nou Rouz is when the sunrise coincides with
the vernal equinox at a predetermined longitude. This event happens
every year at a different longitude and has repeated itself at the same
location once in about 1230 – 1240 years.

The fact is
that the earth goes round the sun in 365.24190 tropical days, thereby every
four years we have an extra 0.9676 day (0.24190 X 4), so we can add a day in
the forth year, although by that we are starting the fifth year short by  0.0324 day (1 - .9676) which means 46
minutes and 39.36 seconds short. To cover the short fall every 120 years we
skip a leap year but even that results in a fraction 120 X 365 +116\4 = 43829
days accounted for by our system of recording leap years. While in fact the
earth has taken 365.24190 X 120 = 43829.028 days. Thus the 120th year
again starts short by 40 minutes and 32 seconds (1440x.028). Apart from these
there are other factors that effect the time on earth, like the gravitational
pull of various planets when they come close to the earth once in a few years,
or a comets passing close to the earth, even a strong earthquake has an effect
on the time on earth. Since the advent of the atomic clock these factors have
been recognized by the scientific world.

Zarathushtra
was a sage whose wisdom was far ahead of our time and even times to come, for
he understood the ultimate truth in nature – Asha. He may be called a
prophet if we do not categorize him and do injustice to his wisdom.

Zarathushtra
looked for the solution in nature. He realized that every year the equinox
coincides with the sunrise at a different longitude and whatever fractional
difference has remained in the calendar can be zeroed out when the sunrise
coincide once again at the same longitude.

Zarathushtra’s calculation showed him
that in the year 1725 BCE the vernal equinox would coincide with the sunrise at
Sistan and so he named the New Year of that year as Nou Rouz the New Day.

As recorded
in history on the spring equinox of 487 BCE Nou Rouz was celebrated at
Takth-e-Jamshid (Persepolis),
when the first rays of the rising sun lighted the square stone set in the
central hall of the Apadana palace. The next Nou Rouz in Iran was missed around 750 ACE after the fall of
the Persian Empire into the hands of the Arabs
who followed the lunar calendar and the event went unnoticed. The ancient
knowledge was lost and today Nou Rouz has become synonymous with Sal e Nou (New
Year).

Nou Rouz
has also been adopted as a religious new year by those modern Semitic religions
that were started in Iran.
Like the Bahai’s and the Ismaili’s who have adopted it without
knowing the real significance of the festival or the origin of its name.

Nou Rouz as
a new year shall one day be adopted by the intellectual world when their attention
is drawn to the truth behind it.

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[i] To see this natural phenomena live on the internet
check

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunearth.html