Members of the Bahá’í faith, along with Zoroastrians, Persians, Sufis and other Muslim communities, are among more than 300 million people preparing to celebrate Nowruz, the New Year, on March 21, the first day of spring.
Nowruz, which means “new day” in Farsi, is one of the nine holy days of Bahá’í, a religion that began in 19th-century Persia.
For Bahá’ís, the holiday falls immediately after a traditional 19-day month of sunrise-to-sunset fasting and reflection. The Bahá’í calendar consists of 19 months, each lasting 19 days. On Nowruz, work is suspended and the day is filled with prayer and feasting.
Nowruz was added to the UNESCO Representative List of “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in 2009 as a celebration promoting “peace, solidarity, reconciliation and neighborliness” and because of its “contributing to cultural diversity and friendship among peoples and different communities.”
In 2010, the UN General Assembly recognized March 21 as the International Day of Nowruz in response to a resolution introduced by Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Albania, Macedonia, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan— countries where the holiday is celebrated
The holiday is also spelled Novruz, Navruz, Nooruz, Nevruz and Nauryz, and is pronounced differently in different parts of the world. It has been celebrated for more than three millennia in Persia, the Balkans, the Black Sea Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East.
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