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Parsis living in the Southern Hemisphere, mainly in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) may be celebrating the gahanbars and other festivals at the wrong time of the year. As the timings of the seasons differ (when it’s summer in India, it is winter in ANZ) the calendar does not indicate the correct dates. To overcome this anomaly, London based Zoroastrian researcher Farrokh Vajifdar proposes a separate calendar for those living Down Under.

"Whilst Iranian and some Indian Zoroastrians intelligently share the notion of a fixed and proper yearly time-reckoner, and rightly shun the vague Shahanshahi and Qadimi calendars, those who have settled Down Under (since the 1950s from India and 1980s from Iran) sense a need for knowledge of our religiously instructed system (clarified with precision in the Pahlavi Bundahishn and Denkard) as it affects Southern Hemisphere observances," Vajifdar writes.

He explains that since communities progressed beyond foraging and hunter-gathering toward settled societies depended largely on pastoralism and agriculture, these societies rapidly realized the need for reliable time-reckoning for the performance of tillage and herding duties. Such duties were seasonally prescribed and made part of our Zoroastrian religious ideal, occupying well-defined times of the year measured by the movement of the sun across the world.

Ancient Iranian beliefs conceived the earth as saucer-shaped with six continents grouped around a central (Zoroastrian) Khwaniras — the Avestic Khvaniratha. These were central, easterly, south-easterly, south-westerly, westerly, north-westerly and north-easterly climes and are named in our prayers. (Khwaniras and the six surrounding continents are from ancient mythico-geography — intended to religiously explain the world-wide day-and-night phenomena.)

 The currently accepted theory is of a spherical earth with its 24 hours filling each of 30 days of a 12-month year when, at any given time, half the world is shrouded in darkness. The earth’s axis being tilted from its perpendicular by 23.5° has given rise to the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn in the northern and southern latitudes, between which lie lands of the Torrid Zone in each hemisphere. The Arctic and Antarctic Circles lie above and below, "in which no Zoroastrians in their right minds are known to have settled," mentions Vajifdar. "No pious Zoroastrian will need reminding that intense cold with its associated plagues and illnesses comes from the dread regions of the North." For those Down Under it is the frigid South.

In the Northern Hemisphere the mid-summer day is twice its nightly duration; in mid-winter the night is double the day’s length. This is equally applicable in the Southern Hemisphere. In India, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the major populated part of North America, Zoroastrians follow the defective Shahanshahi, Qadimi, and the fixed Fasli calendars for their socio-religious and festive requirements with the six gahanbars named and placed at uneven intervals, arranged within the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

"Our Zoroastrian solar calendar, properly called the Sal-i Denig (Pahlavi) or Dini-sal (Pazand) — Fasli is Arabic — observes the four seasons in fixed order and follows the increasing or reducing angles of the noon-day sun. With the sun as sure-fire guide to accurate time-reckoning, i.e. the calendar, it is frustrating that what is actual and what is celebrated are hopelessly at variance. Mention of the two vague calendars is best avoided as they serve no religious purpose and deny sun, seasons and good sense."

According to the Bundahishn, the two astronomically sign-posted gahanbars of Maidyoishema or mid-summer and Maidyairya, mid-year follow their true, religiously appointed dates of end June and end December in the Northern Hemisphere. But in the South Hemisphere’s diaspora lands, Southern Africa and South America included, the positions of the noon-day sun relating to their four seasons are altered. The northern spring is the southern autumn (Fravardin-Hordad); northern summer is the southern spring (Tir-Shahrevar); northern autumn is the southern spring (Mihr-Adar); and northern winter is the southern summer (Spandarmad + Panjag-i Weh).

"The Zoroastrian day and month names and the universal calendar dates, being global, stay the same. So too do the Jamshedi No-ruz, the Khordad Sal, the Zarthosht-no-diso, and the Panjag-i Weh ["the Good (Gathic) Pentad"] which share their religious sense in both hemispheres. Having the same day-and-month conjunctions, the Iranians’ 12 afringans and the popular Parsi paravs/parabhs of Fravardin, Tir, Aban and Adar are therefore also identical," the scholar reveals.

Since the divergences in the North-South calendar arise from their altered seasons, the significance of socio-religious and solar-seasonal demands in the Southern Hemisphere should be considered where crucial and permanent changes are necessitated, Vajifdar notes. He feels that the cautionary adage from the Denkard should be applied here: "If among the people the calculated year is confounded with regard to its place, then much order becomes confused in the world." The shifting of seasonally-ordained dates to accommodate this newly-proposed Southern calendar would not infringe any religio-ritual requirements since "(This is) the instruction of the Good Religion, the Law established by the Ancients." "Law" being synonymous with "religion," the full religious authority for the establishment of a fixed precise "new" calendar is thereby authenticated.

It is therefore recommended that a change of format adaptable for the Southern Hemisphere, especially concerning the shifts of the six season-adjusted gahanbars, with Sal-i Denig roz-mahs and common dates be implemented for the guidance of future generations.