Tir — month 4 of the Persian year

The month at a glance

Month number

4

In Iranian usage

Tir

In Afghan usage

Saratan, or borj 4

Length

31 days

Gregorian window

June 21 to July 23

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.

Read about Cancer, the sign

Two naming systems, one month

Month 4 of the Solar Hijri calendar carries two names. In Iranian usage it is Tir. In Afghan usage it is Saratan. Both name the same month of the same calendar. Neither is the real name, and neither is a variant or a local colouring of the other.

In Afghan usage the month names are the traditional borj names, which are also the names of the zodiac signs, and there a month is commonly referred to by its number instead of by its name. That is the convention behind borj 4: it means the fourth month, which is Saratan, the same month called Tir under the Iranian names.

The two systems differ in vocabulary and in nothing else. The month boundaries are identical, the lengths are identical, and the leap rule is identical. A day dated in Tir and the same day dated in Saratan are one day, written twice.

Where this month sits in the year

Tir, or Saratan, is the fourth month of the Solar Hijri year. The year opens in spring, so by the fourth month the calendar has reached summer. The month before it is Khordad, called Jawza in Afghan usage. The month after it is Mordad, called Asad.

It runs 31 days, every year. That figure does not change in a leap year, because the calendar's leap day belongs to Esfand, the last month of the year, which runs twenty-nine or thirty days depending on the year. In Gregorian terms this month covers the closing days of June and most of July.

Why the Gregorian dates shift

The month lengths are set by the calendar's own rule, but the start of the year is not set by the Gregorian calendar. The year begins at the vernal equinox, and the equinox does not arrive at the same Gregorian moment each year. Every month that follows inherits that small shift, so the Gregorian date this month begins on is determined rather than chosen.

The movement is narrow and bounded. Across the documented range — 101 consecutive Persian years, 1329 to 1429, which for this month is the Gregorian years 1950 to 2050 — the month began on 21 to 23 June and ended on 21 to 23 July. That is 3 distinct start dates in total, and they are not used in equal measure: one of them accounts for most of the years, and the others for the remainder.

This is why a printed calendar that gives a single fixed Gregorian range for the month is right in most years and wrong in the rest. The table below sets out the documented years by the date each one started on.

When Tir 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, Tir 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 1950-06-22 to 2050-07-22.

1. June 21

   20 yearsEnded July 21.

   1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024, 2028, 2029, 2032, 2033, 2036, 2037, 2040, 2041, 2044, 2045, 2048, 2049

2. June 22

   78 yearsEnded July 22.

   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

3. June 23

   3 yearsEnded July 23.

   1951, 1955, 1959

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