Parsi New Year (Navroz, Shahenshahi) · Navroz

Culture of origin: Zoroastrian · Cultural

Holiday sources: Zoroastrianism

Navroz is the first day of the year on the Shahenshahi calendar, which most Parsis, the descendants of the Zoroastrians who left Iran for Gujarat after the Arab conquest, still follow. The calendar does not count leap years, so the New Year has moved more than 200 days from the equinox, which Parsis keep separately as Jamshedi Navroz on March 21. Families clean and decorate their homes with flower garlands and chalk designs, dress in new clothes, visit the fire temple to pray and give thanks, give to charity, and sit down to a festive meal. It is a holiday in Gujarat and Maharashtra. In 1854 the Persian Zoroastrian Amelioration Fund, founded in Bombay, sent Maneckji Limji Hataria to Iran to help the Zoroastrians persecuted under the Qajars.