Esfand — month 12 of the Persian year
Month 12 of the Solar Hijri calendar: Esfand in Iranian usage, Hut in Afghan usage, where it is also referred to as borj 12.
The month at a glance
- Month number
- 12
- In Iranian usage
- Esfand
- In Afghan usage
- Hut, or borj 12
- Length
- 29 days, or 30 in a leap year
- Gregorian window
- February 19 to March 21
This month shares its Afghan name with a zodiac sign. What the tradition carries for the sign is on the sign's own page; this page is about the month.
Two naming systems, one month
Month 12 of the Solar Hijri calendar is called Esfand in Iranian usage and Hut in Afghan usage. Both names belong to the same month of the same calendar. Neither is the real name and neither is a variant of the other; they are two naming systems in use for one set of months.
In Afghan usage the month names are the traditional borj names — Hamal, Sawr, Jawza, and onward to Hut. In everyday speech a month is often referred to by its number instead of its name, and that is what "borj 12" means: the twelfth month of the year, Hut, the month Iranian usage calls Esfand. If you came here having typed that number, this is the month you were looking for.
Only the names differ. The month boundaries are the same in both systems, the lengths are the same, and the leap rule is the same. A day written with the Iranian name and the same day written with the Afghan name are the same day, so nothing needs converting between them.
Where the month sits in the year
Esfand, or Hut, is the last month of the Solar Hijri year, and it falls in winter. Before it comes Bahman, called Dalw in Afghan usage. After it the year turns over and begins again with Farvardin, called Hamal.
It runs 29 days in a common year and 30 days in a leap year, and the condition is simply whether the year is a leap year: this is the month the leap day lives in. That makes it the one month of the calendar whose length is not the same every year. Because it closes the year, its final day is also the last day of the year, and the day after it is new year's day.
Why its Gregorian window moves
The Solar Hijri year does not begin on a fixed Gregorian day. It begins at the vernal equinox, and that moment falls a little differently against the Gregorian calendar from one year to the next. Every boundary inside the year follows from it, including the day this month opens and the day it closes.
So the Gregorian dates of Esfand are determined rather than chosen, and they shift within a narrow window. Across the 101 consecutive Persian years documented on this page, 1329 to 1429 — the Gregorian years 1951 to 2051 for this month — it began between 19 and 21 February and ended between 19 and 21 March. Over that whole span the start landed on 3 distinct dates and no others.
This is why a printed calendar that gives one fixed Gregorian range for the month is right in most years and wrong in the rest. The lengths of the months are set by the calendar's own rule; where those lengths land in the Gregorian year is set by the equinox. The table below groups the documented years by the date the month began, so the pattern behind that narrow window can be read directly.
When Esfand began
The month lengths are set by the calendar's own rule, but the year starts at the spring equinox — so the Gregorian day this month begins on is not the same every year.
Across the 101 years below, Esfand began on 3 different Gregorian dates. A calendar printed with one fixed range is right for most of them and wrong for the rest.
From 1951-02-20 to 2051-03-20.
February 19
1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021, 2025, 2029, 2030, 2033, 2034, 2037, 2038, 2041, 2042, 2045, 2046, 2049, 2050
February 20
1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2031, 2032, 2035, 2036, 2039, 2040, 2043, 2044, 2047, 2048, 2051
February 21
1952, 1956, 1960
Sources
- Borkowski, The Persian Calendar for 3000 Years — the vernal-equinox anchoring that fixes every month boundary
- The Solar Hijri calendar's own month lengths: thirty-one days in the first six months, thirty in the next five, and twenty-nine or thirty in the last
- The traditional borj names, used as the month names of the Solar Hijri calendar in Afghanistan, where a month is also referred to by its number