Ordibehesht — month 2 of the Persian year
The second month of the Persian solar year: Ordibehesht in Iranian usage, Sawr — borj 2 — in Afghan usage, 31 days long and falling in spring.
The month at a glance
- Month number
- 2
- In Iranian usage
- Ordibehesht
- In Afghan usage
- Sawr, or borj 2
- Length
- 31 days
- Gregorian window
- April 20 to May 22
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 2 of the Solar Hijri calendar has two names, and both of them are month names. In Iranian usage it is Ordibehesht. In Afghan usage it is Sawr. Neither is a nickname or a local colouring of the other; they are two naming systems for a single calendar, and the month they name is the same month, beginning and ending on the same days.
In Afghan usage the months carry the traditional borj names — Hamal, Sawr, Jawza, and onward to Hut — and a month is also commonly referred to by its number. Borj 2 is the second month of the year: Sawr, which is Ordibehesht. Someone asking which month borj 2 is has asked about this one, and the number convention is simply how the months are counted off in everyday speech.
Only the names differ. The month boundaries are identical, the month lengths are identical, and the leap rule is identical. A date given in one system becomes a date in the other by changing the name of the month and nothing else.
Where this month sits in the year
Ordibehesht, or Sawr, is the second month of the Solar Hijri year and the second month of spring. It follows Farvardin (Hamal), the month that opens the year, and it is followed by Khordad (Jawza), which closes the spring quarter. It runs 31 days, every year, in both naming systems alike.
It belongs to the longer group of months at the head of the year. The first six months of the year are the longest, the next five run a day shorter, and the final month, Esfand (Hut), runs twenty-nine or thirty days depending on whether the year is a leap year. So the length of this month never varies: the leap day sits at the far end of the year, not here.
Why its Gregorian dates move
The lengths of the Persian months are set by the calendar's own rule. The start of the year is not. The year begins at the vernal equinox, and the equinox does not fall at the same Gregorian moment each time, so the day the year opens shifts a little, and every month of that year shifts with it. The Gregorian date on which Ordibehesht begins is therefore determined rather than chosen.
Across the documented range — 101 consecutive Persian years, 1329 to 1429, which for this month covers the Gregorian years 1950 to 2050 — the month has begun between 20 and 22 April and ended between 20 and 22 May. That is 3 distinct start dates in all. The movement is real, but it is bounded: it stays inside a narrow window instead of drifting through the Gregorian year.
This is why a printed calendar that gives one fixed Gregorian range for Ordibehesht is right in most years and wrong in the rest. The correct answer is a short list of possible start dates, with the equinox deciding which one applies.
When Ordibehesht 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, Ordibehesht 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 1950-04-21 to 2050-05-21.
April 20
1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2029, 2032, 2033, 2036, 2037, 2040, 2041, 2044, 2045, 2048, 2049
April 21
1950, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 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, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2030, 2031, 2034, 2035, 2038, 2039, 2042, 2043, 2046, 2047, 2050
April 22
1951, 1955, 1959
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