NuRuj, as is pronounced in parts of Kurdistan, and Newroz, as it is known in Iran and other parts of the Middle East, is just around the corner, arriving on vernal equinox, which occurs on a certain precise moment usually on March 21. For year 2008, it occurs on March 20, at 05:48 UT. This occurs when Earth completes its journey around the Sun with vernal equinox as a reference point.
Since the Earth is 149,600,000 kilometers, (one hundred forty nine million and six hundred thousands kilometers) from the Sun, it takes 365.2422 days (one solar year), for the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. This means that Earth travels at a speed of approximately 29.8 km/sec or 1788 km per minutes or 107300 km per hour to travel the 939,992,130 km (584,100,000 miles) around the Sun in one year. Note that this is about 900 times the speed of a car moving at typical highway speed of 120 km per hour. As we move forward, at this speed, the earth also rotates around its axis like a spinning basketball. The Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted at a fixed angle of just over 66.5 degree from orbital plane. Given the earth’s equatorial radius of 6380 km, and 40090 kilometers circumference, and the 24 hr duration of a solar day, the rotational speed of a point on the earth’s equator is 1670 km per hour, which is about four times the speed of a Boeing 737 passenger airplane.
Imagine now that this spinning basketball grows a circumferential wing from its equator (the equator is a plane that divides the Earth into two, half-spheres called the Southern hemisphere, and the Northern hemisphere). Imagine this wing, expanding outward into the surrounding space perpendicular with the polar axis, until it touches the inside of the imaginary inner surface of the sky, which is called the celestial sphere.
At this traveling and rotating speeds, Earth, with a fixed angular tilt moves around the sun like a spherical airplane, the top of the wing or the upper (northern hemisphere) is exposed more directly to the Sun during the half of the journey and, the bottom of the wing (and the southern hemisphere) is exposed more directly to the Sun during the second half. The point at which this switch takes place (that is, from southern exposure to northern exposure) is called the vernal equinox. This signals the start of the season Spring. At this position, the length of the day-time, is exactly equal the length of the night-time, and indeed, the name vernal equinox means “renewed equality”. The vernal equinox usually takes place at a certain precise moment on March 21. After the switch, which sometimes occurs on March 20, the days get longer in the northern hemisphere and the nights shorter until Earth Summer Solstice (June 21, or 22, the start of Summer season), when the length of the day-light is the longest. After summer solstice, and as Earth moves on, the days begin to shorten and nights start to get longer until their durations again equal one another at the Autumnal Equinox, which occurs on September 21 (the start of Fall season) 180 degrees opposite the vernal equinox. At the autumnal equinox, the bottom portion of the imaginary wing of the Earth and the Earth’s southern hemisphere receives the more direct sunlight. The northern hemisphere begins to get cooler and cooler until the Earth reach the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21 (and starts the season of Winter). During this time, duration of the day-light in northern hemisphere is shortened and nights are longer and life in the northern hemisphere begins to take a deep sleep. Winter continues until the earth approaches yet another switch at the point of vernal equinox, to bring once more the Spring season. This is the time of good news of returning sunshine, refreshing air and clear water and warmth as nature and life awakens from their deep winter sleep. This rebirth of life and nature is called NuRuj, meaning a Day of Renewal and is what our Kurdish ancestors started to celebrate in the lash and beautiful green hills and mountains of Kurdistan in 728 B.C.
This is the year when the Medes, through the accumulated knowledge by the Pre-Zoroastrian Magi of astrological and planetary motion, declared that the beginning of Spring to be celebrated as the calendarical NuRuj, meaning the New Day which also marked the beginning of a new year.
Another important reason for this celebration was that, the Medes after a thousand years of nomadic and migratory living, had just dominated the indigenous cultures in the Zagros mountains. For these victories, they decided to establish their first organized and regimented government in Eastern Kurdistan in the city of Ekbatana in 728 B.C. with a ceremonial festivity marking the start of their victory with the season of Spring. Under King Farvartish (Phraortes), 675-653 BC, Pasargadae (Pasar=parapet, -Gadae=a base for lookout), meaning an outpost, was founded on the edge of their eastern frontier. The local people appointed to -Patrol and Guard- (Paras-tin) the Kingdom of the Medes, at the outpost against the Scythians, were called the Parasian or Parsian, known today as the Persians. Later, in 615 BC, under Cyaxares (kna: Ha-Khoy-Sara, Kay-Sara or Uvakhshatra), Arrapkha, (Kirkuk), was captured and brought under the Medes control. It is important to notice that the modern word Kaiser is derived from the title of King Cyazares.
Later in 545 B.C., when the Parsians, a vassal tribe to the Medes, received their freedom from the Medes, they maintained the celebration of NuRuj, which later in Persian language its pronunciation changed from NuRuj to NuRooz as it will be explained further below.
Cyrus the Great (in Kuridsh known as the Little Caesar), was born to Mondana, the daughter of the last King of the Medes, King Astyages who had been given in marriage to Cambyses I, the feudal lord and head of the Parsians. The King’s second daughter, Amytes, was given in marriage to Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon who lived from 605 to 562 B.C.
These political marriages however, did not secure the King’s life and the future of his kingdom (the Kingdom of the Medes) from plots instigated against him by the internal revolutionaries and the Parsians. An internal revolt led by a revolutionary blacksmith named Kaveh was mobilized to overthrow the King because of the alleged King’s cruelty against his subjects. Parsians, seeking an opportunity to free themselves from the Medes, and knowing of Kaveh’s intention to overthrow the King, further instigated internal agitation against Astyages. In a Battle between Astyages and the Parsians, Cambyses head of the Parsis, lost his life and was replaced by the minor prince Cyrus, the grandson of the king Astyages. After making a secret pact with his Babylonian in-laws in 545, Cyrus led the Parsians in revolt against his grandfather Astyages . In a battle near the Pasargadae, the last king of the Medes was killed and the Young Cyrus, with the help of Kaveh the blacksmith, combined the two people and brought under Cyrus’s rule, the Medes and the Parsians to form the Great Iranian Empire, known in the West (erroneously) as the Persian Empire. This false credit given to the Persians, by the Greek historian, is because by the time Cyrus and his successors expanded the Medes empire further west, they were introduced to the Greeks as Parsians without mention of the near one thousand years history of the Medes predating the Persians. Thus, the Western literature from that time on has occasionally given credit to those who do not rightly deserve such credit for the history of civilization.
In celebration of their victory and freedom from the Medes, the Parsians, threw a big celebration in the Pasargad the place where King Astyages was killed and celebrated their own NuRuj of freedom. In 1971, the Shah of Iran, commemorated this event, with a big celebration at the tomb of Cyrus, in Pasargad. He called the pompous festivity the Festival of 2500 years Imperial Celebration. Actually, the rule of the Persians over Iran ended in 330 BC, by Alexander the Great conquering Persipolis. Persipolis is the name given by the Greeks to Takht-e-Jamshid a place where Darius I build his palace a few miles away from Pasargade. After the Greeks victory over the Persians in 330 BC, Takhte-e-Jamshid changed name to Persepolis, meaning the city of the Parsis. More about the history of Iran after the fall of the Parsians will be explored in future articles by the KAES.
Now, why NuRuj and not NewRooz?, Kurdish is the original language of the Iranians, it predates the accession of the Persian rule and their language by nearly 1200 years.
The original Kurdish Language is derived from the Fahli language (or as it should be pronounced correctly, the Pahli language, which in ancient times was known as Pahlavi. After the Arab invasion, “F” replaced “P” sound in pronunciation). It is ironic that Reza Shah, when came to power, changed his last name from an Arabic last name to Pahlavi, trying to acquire an authentic Iranian identity. Since the invasion of Islam into Kurdistan and Iran in 640 AD, and domination of Arabic language, the pronunciation of many authentic Iranian words had changed from their original phonetic values to the current phonetic values. This is more pronounced in the modern vernacular Persian language. In Kurdish, however, the language has remained relatively purer with less Arabic influence because of their less accessible cultural and territorial environment. For example, when comparing the Kurdish language to Farsi (Parsi), one can use a general rule of vocabulary conversion between the two languages. One such general rule of vocabulary conversion is that the sound “Zh” in Kurdish becomes the “Z” sound in Farsi after the introduction of Islam. This is apparent in the following examples:
Kuridsh Farsi English
roozh (RuJ) rooz day
teyzh tiyz sharp
zheyr zeyr below
derizh deraz long, to stretch
zhen zan women
reazh reaz to pour or small
zhanin zadan to play, or to beat
ghazh ghaz goose-a bird
zhynin zistan to live
zhaar zahr poison
zhari zari to mourn – weeping
There are many other similar examples.
So, based on recorded historical information and current linguistic comparison mentioned above and modern cultural practices, it is recommended that we revert back to the way that New Rooz originally was pronounced as NuRoj. NuRuj is a time of universal celebration to let light enter the hemispheres of our mind. It is also the time for the Kurds and the Persians to celebrate in joint festivity the spirit of celestial harmony. Let the awesome depth of celestial vision, with music, poetry, and spring fragrance of the lash green nature bring us all, the people of Earth together, to hold hands in celebration of NuRuj, to keep pace with the rhythm of life on earth.
This moment of rhythmic awareness as it should be pronounced NuRuj, should once again, enter our vocabulary of the celebration of life, as it is a fine and authentic way to celebrate life on earth. For me, as we approach the vernal equinox, I like to say to you and all:
NuRuj-etan Pir-Ruj Be.
May your New Day be victorious till your Old Days-
With Peace & Joy
Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur
Kurdish American Education Society