LL-L "Traditions" 2012.03.21 (02) [EN]

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 L O W L A N D S - L - 21 March 2012 - Volume 02
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <roerd096 at PLANET.NL>

Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2012.03.21 (01) [EN]


According to a woman from Afghanistan I know, whom I spoke with very
briefly today, Nowruz was yesterday, so the 20th instead of 21st of March.
But I know she's a Shi'ite and sometimes their feasts differ in date of
those of Sunni Muslims. Shi'ites are a minority compared to Sunni muslems
worldwide, except in Iran and a few other countries like Iraq. In
Afghanistan they're a minority as well, even though the populations speaks
Dari for a great part, which is the Afghan version of Farsi, the Persian
language of Shi'ite Iran .
Belonging to a small minority, unlike most Afghan shi'ites this woman and
her family are not Hazaras (who are partly Mongolid, also known from Khaled
Hosseini's The Kite Runner) but her group, whose name I forgot, I think
something with Sadat in it, claims to be of Arab descendance. They speak
Dari as their mother language.
Does someone know whether Shi'ites celebrate Nowruz a day earlier? Or may
it be because in Afghanistan the local time is ahead of that in the West,
and this woman still takes the Afghan time/date as a lead...

Ingmar

From: Paul Finlow-Bates [log in to unmask]
Subject: LL-L "Traditions" 2012.03.20 (04) [EN]

Now Ruz is the Iranian new year in the modern calendar.  The First of
Ordibehesht equates to March 21; it's a public holiday.

And here in the United Kingdom, our tax year begins on April 6th.  Thats
because New Year was always traditionally 25th March (a Julian Calendar
approximation of the Equinox). When we switched to the Gregorian Calendar
in England (Scotland already had done), the extra days were added on
because people were outraged at having to pay tithes and taxes a couple of
weeks early.

Paul
Derby
England
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