Nowruz Mobarak!

With the beginning of spring I must of course wish all of those of you who celebrate Nowruz a happy New Year, whether you are Iranian, Afghan, Turkish, Central Asians, some folks in the Balkans, Syrian ‘Alawites, Zoroastrians everywhere, members of the Baha'i Faith — almost anyone who has been touched by the culture or faith of ancient Persia. You'll find my earlier Nowruz posts here, and Wikipedia's background here.

Nowruz literally means "New Day," which I wish all my readers.

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Purim

Best wishes to my Jewish readers on the occasion of Purim this weekend.

While I have family plans over the weekend I may drop by here occasionally when events warrant, as I rather suspect they will.

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Mawlid al-Nabi

I'm a little late noting the Prophet's birthday this year, which was yesterday.

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Merry Christmas, Part Two

If you're Middle Eastern, or any sort of Orthodox or other eastern Christian, and/or ecumenical and believe you can never have too many Christmases, a Happy Orthodox/Eastern Christmas to you today. The Julian calendar having now diverged from the Gregorian by 13 days, it's rather neat: just as Western Christians are celebrating 12th Night/Epiphany/Three Kings Day and the 12 Drummers are drumming on January 6, suddenly it's Christmas Eve in the old calendar and we get to start the whole process again.

But then many Armenians celebrate on the Julian Three Kings Day, so we've still got one to go.

So Merry Christmas, Part Two.

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Happy New Year!

Happy January 1, 2011 AD.

Of course it's also:

December 19, 2010 in the Julian Calendar;

25 Tevet AM 5771 in the Jewish Calendar;

26 Muharram, 1432 AH in the Muslim Calendar;

11 Dey 1389 in the Persian Calendar;

11 Befranbar 1389 in the Kurdish Calendar;

11 Jaddi 1389 in the Afghan Calendar;

23 Koiak (Kiahk) Year of the Martyrs 1727 in the Coptic Calendar;

2 Sharaf 167 BE in the Baha'i Calendar;

and since I'm still on holiday that's where I'll stop. Those I've left out are welcome to post to the comments.

And a Happy New Year to you all anyway. Kull al-‘am wa antum bi'l khayr, Shona Tova, and all the rest.

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Christmas Week: Posting will Be Irregular

I'm spending the week with the family, so posting will be sporadic. I lost Internet for a while today, probably due to the high winds we've been getting, but am back now. Posts may also be at odd hours, but do stop by as I will be around this week.

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‘Ashura 1432

Okay, before somebody starts denouncing me, the above artwork is from Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV English website. If you think I'm a Hizbullah sympathizer you haven't been paying attention, but I needed some Shi‘ite graphics for ‘Ashura, and there it was. If it makes you feel any better, I'm probably violating their copyright.

Today is ‘Ashura, the tenth of Muharram. As the tenth day of the new Muslim year, it originated as a day of fasting exactly analagous to Yom Kippur; the parallel was, according to some hadith, acknowledged by the Prophet himself. I dealt with the background of the day in some detail last year.

While it is still a day of recommended fasting for Sunni Muslims, it has become far more closely identified with Shi‘ism, since it was on ‘Ashura in the year 61 after the Hijra (680 AD) that the third Imam of Shi‘ism, the Prophet's grandson Hussein, and many members of the Prophetic family were martyred in battle at Karbala in Iraq by the Umayyad Caliph Yazid.

At a minimum, Shi‘ites mark ‘Ashura by reenactments of Hussein's martyrdom and by mourning; in some countries self-flagellation and other extreme practices are seen. In Tehran and other Iranian cities, in the Shi‘ite shrines of Iraq, in southern Lebanon and Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, Shi‘ites will commemorate their central martyr. Unfortunately there are likely to be sectarian attacks as well; yesterday's bombing in Chabahar, Iran, claimed by the Sunni Jundallah, was presumably timed to ‘Ashura, and Sunni-Shi‘ite clashes in Iraq often coincide with Shi‘ite holidays. The blood shed on the field of Karbala 1330 years ago still divides Muslims today.

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Ra's al-Sana; 1 Muharram 1432 AH

For my Muslim readers, Ra's al-Sana (exactly cognate with Rosh Hashona), the new Hijri year, begins at sundown today. Tomorrow is 1 Muharram, 1432 in the Hijra calendar. Happy New Year; Kul al-‘Am wa antum bi'l-khayr.

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