New NaqqaliThe calendar of the Shahnameh is the ancient Iranian solar calendar. Often associated with the Zoroastrian tradition, it gives spiritual meaning to every day and month. As the epic reflects it, it is a mature and fully integrated conception of time, linking the rhythms of nature to religious meaning and to the living of human life.
The Year
The year was solar and began at the vernal equinox, when the sun entered Aries and spring began — around 21 March in the modern calendar. That moment was Nowruz, the New Year, the renewal of cosmic and social order. The year had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each, and five more days at the end of the twelfth month to fill the interval until the equinox returned. These were the Gatha days, each named for one of the five Gathas of Zarathustra — Ahunavaiti, Ushtavaiti, Spentamainyu, Vohukhshathra and Vahishtoishti — and known together as the Panjeh, “the five.” They stood outside the ordinary count of the year, a seam in time when the spirits of the dead were said to return to their houses.
A fixed year of 365 days has no leap day, so it loses about a day against the sun every four years. Over centuries this pulled the calendar steadily away from the equinox it was built on, and the modern equivalents given below describe the ideal scheme rather than dates that held in any particular reign.
The Thirty Day-Names
Each day of the month was dedicated to a divine or spiritual being, a yazata or guardian presence, and named for the being who presided over it. These names recur in religious, poetic and cultural contexts, including the epic.
- 1Ormozd
- 2Bahman
- 3Ordibehesht
- 4Shahrivar
- 5Sepandarmaz
- 6Khordad
- 7Amordad
- 8Dey-be-Azar
- 9Azar
- 10Aban
- 11Khur
- 12Mah
- 13Tir
- 14Gosh
- 15Dey-be-Mehr
- 16Mehr
- 17Soroush
- 18Rashn
- 19Farvardin
- 20Bahram
- 21Ram
- 22Baad
- 23Dey-be-Din
- 24Din
- 25Ard
- 26Ashtad
- 27Asman
- 28Zamyad
- 29Mahraspand
- 30Aneran
Days shown in red share their name with a month.
Where a day-name and a month-name coincide, the day is a feast. Mehr day in the month of Mehr is Mehregan; Tir day in Tir is Tirgan; Farvardin day in Farvardin is Farvardigan. This single mechanism produces most of the festivals the epic names, and it is why Nowruz falls where it does: on the first day of Farvardin, the day of Ormozd, the first day of the first month.
The calendar is not background to the Shahnameh; it is inside it. Jamshid founds Nowruz in the epic’s own account, seating himself in splendor on the first day of Farvardin while the world looks on, and Mehregan is credited to Fereydoon’s victory over Zahhak. When the poem dates a coronation, a march to war or a death by day and month, this is the system it is using.
The Twelve Months
Twelve of the thirty day-names also named the months of the year:
Then five Gatha days, the Panjeh, close the year before Nowruz.
The Hours of the Day
Time was reckoned from day to night, rather than from night to day as in some other traditions. The day was divided into five gāhs: Havan, from sunrise to midday; Rapithwin, at noon; Uzerin, through the afternoon; Aiwisruthrem, from sunset to midnight; and Ushahin, from midnight to dawn. These are not equal hours. They follow the sun, lengthening and shortening with the season, and each carries its own prayer.
- Havanfrom sunrise to midday
- Rapithwinat noon
- Uzerinthrough the afternoon
- Aiwisruthremfrom sunset to midnight
- Ushahinfrom midnight to dawn
The Meaning of the Calendar
The calendar was not just a means of measurement. It expressed a cosmic order in which time, divinity, nature and human life were woven together: each day bore a name and a presence, each month marked a phase of renewal, and the year itself began with the rebirth of light. To understand it is to understand how time was felt in the world that shaped the Shahnameh — cyclical, sacred, and aligned with the rhythms of the cosmos rather than an abstract count of numbers.
Month and day names are also in the Glossary, with where each first appears in the poem.