Translated to English by: Nina Jamshidnejad
Nina-at-7sang-dot-org

Dr. Fereydoun Joneydi, Iranologist, and the manager of Neishabour Institute, in an interview with 7sang, talks about the history of Nowrouz.
Nowrouz holidays, in the last days of March, are the beginning days of Iranian New Year. Every year, in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kurdistan, and some parts of Turkey, people celebrate Nowrouz as the beginning of New Year.

Dr. Joneydi: “Everything I am going to say today is according to the studies of time we have worked on in Neishabour Institute. Professor Belderian the great international geologist helped us in this project. We studied geological changes - Periods of coldness, warmness, droughts, earthquakes, and volcanoes - and made a chart for the history of Iran.
By the use of geological changes, and conforming them to the natural phenomena, we made such a chart that those Europeans, who made a fake history for Iran, cannot even imagine it.
Europe has a history of not more than 2,800 years and Greece goes back to 2,800 years ago. After Europeans found about the wonderful cultural achievements in Iran, they said these achievements were not belonged to Iranians and claimed that they all belonged to tribes called “Aziani” or “Aziatic” who were the real natives of the land of Persia. They believe that Iranians or Aryans were emigrant cowboys who conquered Persia and gave their own name to this land. Europeans have no evidence or proof for this claim.
According to what Europeans say, Iran’s history begins from Medes’(1) period. That makes the length of our history even less than Greek’s. With this interpretation, European claim to have a history older than ours. So, in their opinion whatever that is found in the land of Iran, is not belonged to us and is belonged to the tribes who lived in Iran in the past.
Unfortunately, this fake history is even being taught in all the universities of Iran by the followers of Europe. But the history that scientific studies on geological phenomena suggest is totally different from Europeans’.
We have got an old script, in Pahlavi language, in which a great period of frost is foretold. Also in The Vandidad Book, that is probably the oldest book in the world, the great frost is mentioned:
Said Ormuzd(2) to Jamshid(3): “The great frost is on its way. The whole beings are in danger. You must build a “var”(enclosure) and place everybody inside it.” Jamshid asks Ormuzd how to make a “var” and Ormuzd says he can make the “var” by mixing soil and water.
This refers to the use of mud first in the world. The Archeologists say that the use of pottery was the most important cultural occurrence in the life of ancient man, because it greatly helped human being. Archeologists however, never talked about mud. But it is mentioned in our culture. Anyway, “var” can mean, “garden” or “cave”. In other interpretations, it can also mean “gate”, “rampart”, or “wall”.
In the past, people used to live and make homes in the caves. So everybody lived near the mountains. Later, when they learned to make walls, people started to live in the plains. These go back to the period that is mentioned as “The Time of King Jamshid” in Avesta(4) and Shahnameh.(5)
It may surprise you, but there was a period of 100 years of frost in the world and four others in the last 100,000 years. The Frost that has been mentioned in the time of Jamshid goes back to 16,000 to 10,000 years ago. Just Imagine! 6,000 years of frost! In a book by Minoo Kherad, it is mentioned that in this period the weather was wintry 10 months of the year, and summery in the two other months. Even in those two months of summery weather the earth and the water were cold. Today’s geology science admits all of these. Everything that today’s geologists find, has already been said in our ancient books.
When this frost period ends 10,000 years ago, the weather gets warmer and there is 3,000 years of peace. But 7,000 years ago, the primary people of Babel, attack our country from the southwest. The time of peace and glory is suddenly over. They call this period as “Jamshid and Shahnameh” or “Jamshid, the twin of sun, and shining”
In the very Pahlavi script I just talked about, it is said that people believed that the sun would talk to people three times a day; in the morning it tells people to go to the fire-temple and take some logs with them to prevent the fire of getting cold and save their land. At noon the sun tells people to take care of their wives and children. And before it sets, the sun tells people to turn away from all sins and try not to do bad deeds.
In the ending lines of the script, it is said that just as sun’s light reaches the earth, its speeches goes to earth too.
All of these show that Iranians’ religion is the very first religion in the world and that is the religion of the sky and heaven; goodness, like rain and light, and badness, like thunderbolts all came from sky. So, people believed that heaven was the god of earth.
For 13,000 years, the religion of Iranians was the religion of sky. This belief was so deep that even now when we think of God, unconsciously we raise our hands towards the sky.
A model “var” belonged to the time of Jamshid, that has been found in the city of Shahroud, models a building consist of some rooms that have windows close to the ceiling. This shows that people always looked at the sky and stars and worship them. Before this model was found, we had discovered the “The 8,000 year old Zaghe Hill”, in which the rooms did not have doors, and people must have entered them from the windows located close to the ceiling.
Some achievements even were made because of these thousands of years of belief in the sky; people found some constellations; they found seven stars that were moving in the sky, and also found a series of constellations and gave each a name.
After that, it took other thousands of years for them to realize that each month the sun, sets behind the mountains with one of these constellations. When they count the constellations, they found there were twelve. After decades and centuries of survey, they also found about months and years. The word “sal” (means “year” in Persian) we use now, “sol” in the language of Zoroastrians, “soleil” in French, and “solar” in English, all go back to the same origin: the sun. “sal” means “When the sun becomes fresh and new.” And “sal e no” (New Year) means: the new sun.
So, a scientific calendar was made about 8,000 years ago; at the end of times of Jamshid.
Our ancestors found the accurate time in which day and night were exactly of a same length. (The very time we celebrate as the beginning of New Year or Nowrouz.) So they must have had a tool like a clock. But we don’t know yet about this clock; how it worked, etc.
The invention of this solar calendar is almost at the same time as people start to know about music and wine. It must have been at the same time that pottery too, came our people’s lives. In a valley around Kermanshah a piece of pottery has been found, that is dated back to 10,400 years ago. Four years ago in the city of BoinZahra, they found another piece of 9,000 years old. There are also signs of city life in Zaghe Hill of Ghazvin, belonged to 8,000 years ago.

The feast of Nowruz, is in fact the celebration of human knowledge; 3,000 years ago, Europeans had a wild life. Iranians on the other hand, found about the solar calendar 8,000 years ago without any special facility. Unfortunately, this really wonderful fact is ignored usually.
Since the reign of Gaznavi kings in Iran, that is 1,000 years ago, governments do not pay much attention to the ancient culture of the country. When there is no expert whose ideas are respected by the government, there are grandmothers and grandfathers who celebrate their great ancestors in their own way; this is what that happens in Iran during Nowruz.”

(1) The Medes were an Iranian people, who lived in the north, western, and northwestern portions of present-day Iran. The Medes are credited with the foundation of Iran as a nation and empire, and established the first Iranian empire. For more information, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes

(2) Ahura Mazda or Ormazd is the abstract and transcendant god, chief deity of Zoroastrianism, source of light and embodiment of good. For more information, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormuzd

(3)Jamshid/ Jamshid-e-Jam: a figure of Persian legend and mythology. In the Avestahe is said to have ruled seedland of the noble or seedland of the Aryans. He is also referred to as Jam Sheed, or Jam of the family Sheed. he was the second king of the universe after Keyumarth, and is said to have discovered fire and invented the bath, ships, clothing & shoes, various iron tools and (accidentally) wine. For more information please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamshid

(4) Avesta, the sacred texts of the Zoroastrians; A collection of Zoroastrian texts gathered during the 4th or 6th centuries. For more information visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avesta
(5) The Shahnameh ) The Book of Kings or The Epic of Kings, also written Shahnama), written by Ferdowsi around 1000 AD, is the national epic of Iran (Persia) and tells the mythical and historical past of Iran from the creation of the world up until the country's Islamization in the 7th century. This masterpiece of world literature is not only of utmost literary importance but has been groundbreaking for the development of the Persian language, and constitutes a monument in the cultural heritage of Iran. More information in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahnameh