Traveling to a country like Iran is an eye-opening experience for an American or Westerner. For one, American culture and media would have you believe that New Years and Christmas are universal experiences. Indeed, even Jewish children in New York go see Santa. And don't forget that Muslims do believe that Jesus was a prophet of god/allah and often Iranian politicians try to find even ground by invoking his name in formal addresses to Western worlds. But, its very clear to me, after much traveling, that my roots are in a Christian world, and that there is no 'Regular' world. That said, Christmas is my favorite holiday. The last two weeks of mine have been steeped in family, love, and celebration.
I had a great New Year's with friends in New York City, but again, a 'date' worth researching. Irregular lengths of months, days coordinated with the sun, but not weeks. All very strange, IMHO. Check out the
Gregorian Calendar Wikipedia page. One point of pride coming from one gallerina I'd met in Tehran, was the organic and seemingly superior calendar system of Iran. Nowruz (there are a bazillion ways to spell it) is the Iranian version of Christmas/New Years (family time and celebrations). This Iranian New Year begins on the spring equinox, the day the sun is directly over the equator. From
wikipedia:
"an astronomical solar calendar and one of the longest chronological records in history and is currently used in Iran and Afghanistan as the main official calendar. Beginning each year on the vernal equinox as precisely determined by astronomical observations from Tehran (or the 52.5°E meridian, which also defines IRST), this makes it more accurate than the Gregorian Calendar in being synchronized with the solar year, but harder to work out when a particular date would occur before the New Year preceding that date.
Iran even initiated a calendar reform (a tweak) in 1925! I can't even imagine the Western powers considering this.
So, interestingly enough, in regards to calendars and a sense of date and time, we are two different cultures with two different concepts of timekeeping.
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