The Persian Calendar: Days of the Week, Months and Nowruz

The Persian calendar, officially called the Solar Hijri calendar, is the calendar of daily life in Iran. Its year starts at Nowruz, on the March equinox, and has 12 months: the first six have 31 days, the next five have 30, and Esfand has 29 or 30. The week runs from Saturday (شنبه) to Friday (جمعه).

Below you will find every day and month with pronunciation and audio, where the month names come from, how to say a date out loud, and when the big Persian celebrations fall. If you are new to the script, keep our beginner lessons open in another tab.

The Persian calendar at a glance

Do not confuse it with the Islamic lunar calendar (the Hijri ghamari calendar). Both count from the same starting year, but the lunar calendar has about 354 days, so its months drift through the seasons. Iran uses the lunar calendar for religious dates and the solar calendar for everything else, and most printed Iranian calendars show both plus the Gregorian date.

Days of the week in Persian

The Persian week is called هفته (hafte), from هفت (haft, “seven”). Five of the seven day names are built on one word, شنبه (shanbe, Saturday), plus a number. Once you know the numbers one to five, you already know most of the week.

So Sunday is literally “one (day after) Saturday,” Monday is “two,” and so on up to Thursday, “five.” Friday breaks the pattern and has its own name. In older and poetic Persian you will also meet آدینه (âdine) for Friday.

Why the Persian week starts on Saturday

In Iran, Friday is the day of the weekly congregational prayer (نماز جمعه, namâz-e jom’e) and the official weekly day off. The working and school week therefore starts the next morning, on Saturday. That is why calendars printed in Iran begin each row with شنبه, and why every other day is counted from it. The word شنبه itself goes back to the same Semitic word as English “Sabbath” (Arabic sabt, Hebrew shabbat), the old seventh day of the week.

Spoken pronunciation in Tehran

In everyday Tehran speech the n before b usually sounds like m, so you will hear shambe, yekshambe, doshambe, seshambe and panjshambe. Wednesday is often shortened to chârshambe, and Friday sounds like jome. The spelling never changes; only the pronunciation is relaxed.

Two questions you will use all the time:

• امروز چه روزی است؟ Listen emruz che ruzi ast? “What day is it today?” (spoken: emruz che ruzie?)
• امروز پنجشنبه است. Listen emruz panjshanbe ast. “Today is Thursday.”

The 12 Persian months and their Zoroastrian origins

The month is ماه (mâh), the same word as “moon.” The 1925 law brought back the old Iranian month names, which go back to the Zoroastrian calendar. Most of them honor one of the Amesha Spentas (the “holy immortals” of Zoroastrianism) or another divine being, and the modern names are worn-down forms of the Avestan originals.

The Gregorian start dates shift by a day in some years, so treat them as a guide. A few of these old names still live inside everyday words. آب (âb) means “water,” which you can hear in Âbân. مهر (mehr) also means “kindness” and “affection” in modern Persian. بهشت (behesht, “paradise”) hides inside Ordibehesht; it comes from the Avestan vahishta, “best.” Mordâd is a special case: because مرد (mord) means “died,” some Iranians prefer the fuller form امرداد (Amordâd), which keeps the “im-” of “immortality.”

Why the first six months have 31 days

The month lengths follow the sun. From the March equinox to the September equinox is about 186 days, because Earth moves a little more slowly in its orbit during the northern summer. Six months of 31 days add up to exactly 186. The rest of the year, from the September equinox back to the March equinox, is about 179 days: five months of 30 days plus a 29-day Esfand gives 179. In a leap year Esfand gets a 30th day.

A handy result: the first day of every third month lines up with an equinox or solstice. 1 Farvardin is the first day of spring, 1 Tir is near the June solstice, 1 Mehr is near the September equinox, and 1 Dey falls just after the longest night of the year.

The four seasons in Persian

Each season is exactly three months long, so you can name the season of any date from its month.

In Tehran speech تابستان and زمستان usually sound like tâbestun and zemestun, because â before n often becomes u in the spoken language.

How the Persian year begins at the March equinox

The Persian New Year is not fixed to a Gregorian date. It begins at the moment the sun crosses the equator northward, the March equinox, called تحویل سال (tahvil-e sâl, “the turning of the year”). Families gather around the هفت‌سین (haft-sin) table to wait for that exact minute, even when it falls in the middle of the night.

Which day becomes 1 Farvardin depends on the clock in Iran. If the equinox comes before noon Iran time, that day is Nowruz. If it comes after noon, that day is the last day of Esfand and Nowruz is the next day. Because the rule follows the real sky instead of a fixed formula, leap years are set by astronomy: when 366 days pass between two New Years, Esfand gets a 30th day. Most leap years come four years apart, with an occasional five-year gap.

What year is it in the Persian calendar? The 1404 to 1405 change

The current Persian year is 1405. Here is how the most recent New Year worked out:

• The March equinox of 2026 fell at 14:46 UTC on Friday, March 20, which was about 6:16 p.m. in Tehran.
• That is after noon, so Friday, March 20, 2026 stayed in the old year as 29 Esfand 1404, the last day of 1404 (1404 was a common year, so Esfand had 29 days).
• Saturday, March 21, 2026 became 1 Farvardin 1405, Nowruz.
• Year 1405 runs until March 20, 2027, and 1406 begins on March 21, 2027.

As this post was published, the date in Iran was Thursday, 7 Âbân 1405 (October 29, 2026).

A quick way to convert the year

From Nowruz to December 31, subtract 621 from the Gregorian year. From January 1 to the day before Nowruz, subtract 622. So October 2026 is 2026 minus 621 = 1405, and February 2027 is 2027 minus 622 = 1405. For exact days, use the month start dates in the table above, or a converter for anything official.

How to write and say dates in Persian

Persian dates go from small to large: day, month, year, the same order as in British English. Persian digits are ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹, and numbers are written left to right even inside right-to-left text.

A few points to notice:

• The day can be said with an ordinal, هفتم (haftom, “seventh”), or in everyday speech with a plain number, هفت (haft). Both are linked to the month with the ezafe sound -e: haftom-e âbân, haft-e âbân. Famous dates are often named this way, like ۲۲ بهمن (bist-o do-ye bahman), the anniversary of the 1979 revolution.
• The year is read as a normal number: 1405 is هزار و چهارصد و پنج (hezâr-o chahârsad-o panj). In casual speech Iranians often drop the “thousand,” so you may hear just chahârsad-o panj.
• To ask the date, say امروز چندم است؟ Listen emruz chandom ast? (spoken: emruz chandome?) “What’s the date today?”
• When a date might be confused with the Gregorian one, you may see ه.ش. after the year, short for hejri-ye shamsi, “Solar Hijri.”

Key Persian holidays and their dates

The great seasonal festivals of Iran are tied to the solar calendar, so they fall on the same Persian date every year.

Nowruz (نوروز): the Persian New Year

Nowruz means “new day” (نو no, “new” + روز ruz, “day”). It falls on 1 Farvardin, the first day of spring, and it is celebrated far beyond Iran, from Central Asia to the Caucasus. UNESCO inscribed Nowruz on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, and in 2010 the UN General Assembly recognized March 21 as International Day of Nowruz. The center of the celebration at home is the haft-sin table, with seven items whose names begin with the letter س (sin), such as سبزه (sabze, sprouted greens), سیب (sib, apple), سنجد (senjed, dried oleaster fruit) and سرکه (serke, vinegar). The greeting is نوروز مبارک Listen nowruz mobârak, or سال نو مبارک Listen sâl-e no mobârak, “Happy New Year.”

Chaharshanbe Suri (چهارشنبه‌سوری): the fire festival

On the evening before the last Wednesday of the year, people light bonfires in streets and courtyards and jump over them. So the party happens on Tuesday night. In 2026 that was Tuesday, March 17 (26 Esfand 1404). The name literally means “festive Wednesday,” and notice the weekday name inside it: چهارشنبه.

Sizdah Bedar (سیزده‌بدر): the picnic day

The Nowruz season closes on 13 Farvardin (سیزده sizdah means “thirteen”). Families spend the whole day outdoors with a picnic, and many throw the sabze from their haft-sin into running water. It is also a day for playful pranks. In 1405 it fell on Thursday, April 2, 2026.

Yalda Night (شب یلدا): the longest night

Yalda, also called شب چله (shab-e chelle), is the night between the last day of Âzar and the first day of Dey, the longest night of the year. Families stay up late with pomegranates, watermelon, nuts and dried fruit, and read the poems of Hafez, often opening his Divan at random for a فال حافظ (fâl-e hâfez, a Hafez fortune). The word yaldâ comes from Syriac and means “birth.” Yalda was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists in 2022. In 1405, Yalda is the evening of Monday, December 21, 2026 (30 Âzar).

Which of these celebrations do you mark in your family, and how? Tell us in the comments.

Keep learning Persian dates and everyday words

Days and months are some of the first words you will use in real conversations: making plans, reading a ticket, wishing someone a happy Nowruz. Pick the description that fits you best.

Did anything here surprise you, like the Saturday start or the 31-day months? Let us know in the comments.

Sources: Solar Hijri calendar (Wikipedia), Iranian calendars (Wikipedia), Encyclopaedia Iranica: Calendars, Avesta.org: Zoroastrian month names (after A. Panaino, Encyclopaedia Iranica), timeanddate.com: The Persian Solar Hijri Calendar, University of Texas at Austin: Persian Online Resources, Calendar, Equinoxes and solstices 2026 (UniversalTimeDate), Nowruz (Wikipedia), Yalda Night (Wikipedia), List of observances set by the Solar Hijri calendar (Wikipedia), WikiShia: Saturday, Iran Chamber Society: Iranian months.

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