This past Saturday, March 20th, the northern hemisphere entered Spring through the arrival of the Spring equinox. Spring is traditionally the start of nature’s year, and the start of the new year in many countries in the middle and near east, in particular in Iran. The new year starts on the moment of the Spring equinox, and the celebrations start on that first day of Spring, called Nowruz (meaning new day), which announces the revival of the nature. But is the revival in the Spring or in the Winter, as Christmas and Christian new year trumpet?
“What a silly question” you may say, because the answer may seem obvious that it is spring, and Christmas is Jesus’ birth, and the new year a week later. Not so obvious, perhaps. Keep reading to find out why.
As a side note, some people associate the Christian new year with the circumcision act traditionally carried out on the eighth day of a Jewish boy’s birth, and Jesus was born Jewish. (Jan 1 is day 8 after December 25, if we count the 25th.)
The other day, as I was thinking about the Spring and the new year (or the revival of the nature), I remembered a conversation I had with a colleague about three years ago about the difference between the Christian new year which happens on the 31st of December just after the Winter solstice when nature (in the northern hemisphere) goes to sleep, and the middle and near east new year (Iran, parts of Iraq, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, etc) on the Spring equinox when the nature revives. I was telling the colleague how could you consider the cold dark Winter a new year?
“I disagree”, he said, “after the longest night of the year, the days begin getting longer from the start of the Winter, and since light is life, you can consider that the Winter signals that the nature revives from Winter solstice when days start getting longer.” I must admit, I had not thought about it this way and I could see a relevance in this statement.
I am still favoring the Spring equinox as the “natural new year”, but the line is not so clear cut anymore. On a related note, in some countries such as Japan, the first day of Spring is a national holiday (although the first day of Fall – Autumn equinox – is as well). So to settle the issue, I have come up with two explanations:
- It’s all about Einstein and relativity (the special relativity) and his reference point: Depending on your point of reference (the sky & sun or the land & nature) the revival starts in the Winter or the Spring;
- It’s all about the difference between a leading indicator and a transformation milestone: seeing the days getting longer is a leading indicator signaling livelier days ahead. Seeing the trees, plants and flowers blooming is a first major milestone on the revival/transformation of the nature.
Probably you already know about Christmas, but if you want to know about the Iranian/Spring new year, click on the link below to watch a 2min BBC report on it from a couple of years ago.