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DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

  • 17 August, 2022

  • 8 Min Read

Parsi New Year

Parsi New Year

The Parsi Community celebrates Paris New Year (also known as Navroz) on August 16 each year.

About Parsi New Year:

  • The Persian and Iranian New Year are known as Navroz or Nowruz, which means "new," while ruz means "day," respectively. As a result, the term literally means "a fresh day."
  • Countries with a sizable Persian cultural impact, such as Iran, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, and areas of Central Asia, celebrate it.

History:

  • The Persian king Jamshed is credited with developing the Persian or Shahenshahi calendar, and the holiday of Nowruz bears his name.
  • Jamshed averted a global disaster that would have killed everyone and took the guise of winter.
  • Scriptures claim that King Jamshed's reign was free from extreme heat or cold, early deaths, and unhappy living conditions for everyone.
  • It is believed that Nusservanji Kohyaji, a wealthy trader from Surat who frequently visited Iran and started celebrating Nowruz in India, brought the holiday to the country.

Nowruz celebrations in India

  • The Parsi community in India celebrates the event around August 16–17 using the Shahenshahi calendar, which does not take leap years into account. As a result, the holiday has migrated by 200 days from its original date.
  • It is listed among India's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

What is Zoroastrianism?

  • One of the earliest monotheistic religions is Zoroastrianism. About 3500 years ago, the Prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra) founded it in ancient Iran.
  • It was developed by Prophet Zarathustra in pre-Islamic Iran more than 3,500 years ago.
  • Zoroastrianism was one of the most influential faiths in the world for a thousand years. From 600 BCE until 650 CE, it served as Persia's (Iran) state religion. It is currently one of the smallest religions in the world.
  • According to Zoroastrians, there is only one God, Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), who made the world.
  • The Avesta is the name of the holy text of Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrians can be divided approximately into two categories:

  • Iran's nationals
  • It's Parsi.

With an estimated 2.6 million Zoroastrians worldwide, the Parsis are the largest single ethnic community in India. "Parsi" is Gujarati for Persian.

One of the registered minority communities is the Zoroastrian (Parsi) community.

Also, Read - Fundamental Duties

Source: PIB


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