Esfandgan (Sepandarmazgan)

Esfandgan — Sepandarmazgan — is the day of the earth and the day of women. In the old Iranian calendar every day of the month carried its own name, and whenever a day’s name met the month’s name, that day was kept as a feast. Esfandgan is exactly that: the day Sepandarmaz falling in the month of Esfand. Mehregan, Tirgan and Abanagan are named on the same principle.

Sepandarmaz (Spenta Armaiti) is one of the Amesha Spentas, guardian of the earth and the figure of devotion and pure love. In Iranian thought the earth is a mother: everything grows from her and everything returns to her — which is why her day became a day for honoring women too. Abu Rayhan Biruni records the festival in his Āthār al-Bāqiya, writing that men gave gifts to the women of the house and the household’s burdens were lifted from them.

Two dates circulate, and both have a real basis. In ancient Iran every month ran thirty days and Sepandarmaz was the fifth, so most Iranians today keep 5 Esfand. Iran’s Zoroastrians, who follow their own seasonal calendar, keep it on 29 Bahman instead — the modern Persian calendar gives its first six months thirty-one days, which shifts the day-count. This page follows 5 Esfand.

Iranians today keep Esfandgan as their own day of love: older than Valentine’s, and theirs. Flowers and gifts, mothers and wives remembered, and the old bond between Iranians and the ground they stand on read out once more.