Ābrīzgān and Āḍarjašn, Solstices and Sasanian Calendar

This paper studies two ancient seasonal festivals which were celebrated on summer and winter solstices. Because of misconceptions regarding Sasanian calendar, these two festivals, known as Ābrīzgān and Āḍarjašn, have remained unnoticed in modern researches. A sound interpretation of the Old Iranian calendar as described by Biruni would uncover the true character of these festivals. This paper demonstrates that these two old festivals, probably like a few other seasonal festivals, go back to very old times, and the custom of celebrating these festivals predates the time of month-naming in Old Iranian calendar. Customs associated with these two festivals in Sasanian Era and the mechanism for celebrating these seasonal festivals in vague year of the Sasanian calendar are also studied here. According to this research, these two festivals have been main reasons behind the naming of the first month of summer and the last month of autumn in Old Iranian calendar. This paper explains the reasons for creation of both non-seasonal alternatives of these two festivals and the festivals which were celebrated with the coincidence of the names of the day and the month. Later developments in these two festivals after the fall of Sasanian dynasty, both before and after the introduction of Jalali calendar in 11th century is the last of object the paper.