“Three Parsi New Years”

Julius Caesar, who in his youth had been nominated priest of Jupiter by the consuls, reformed a Roman calendar corrupted by the politics of the priesthood by decreeing that the year 46 BC would have 445 days. At a stroke, he abolished the lunar calendar, aligned his new (Julian) calendar with the solar year and reinstated the spring equinox at its traditional date, March 25, a date later adjusted to March 21 under the Gregorian (international) calendar of 1582.

However, since our community is scarcely in a position to take such radical action, perhaps we should hearken to the suggestion of Faribourz Nariman ("Three Parsi New Years,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, July 7, 2009), accept the status quo and make the most of it.

The Shahenshahi calendar has its own unique orbit around the sun, stepping backward against the international calendar by 97 days in every cycle of 400 years. There is something egalitarian, basically democratic, about a calendar which, in the course of its personal full orbit around the sun, will greet each and every one of the dates of the international calendar in reverse succession with the title "New Year,” usually for either four years in a row and occasionally for eight years.

For those who are reform-minded I advocate patience. After a short wait of 431 years, in the year 2440 the New Year will fall on March 6, a golden opportunity — not to recur for another 1,508 years — of returning to our ancient tradition of adding one full month of 30 days to the calendar once in every 120 years, starting from that year. It is an event we can look forward to with zest.

This of course presupposes that the community will exist 431 years from now which, as things stand, sadly cannot be taken for granted, in which case our calendar is destined to step backward in time till that day when God ends time.

CYRUS S. RUTTONSHA

cyrusruttonsha@hotmail.com