Q 01/05

What does the Persian word Nowruz literally mean?

A) Spring Feast

B) New Day

C) Green Year

D) First Light

Answer · why

B) New Day

New Day: now means new and ruz means day, and in 2010 the UN General Assembly proclaimed 21 March the International Day of Nowruz.

Q 02/05

Nowruz opens the year on which official calendar of Iran?

A) The Lunar Hijri calendar

B) The Hebrew calendar

C) The Bengali calendar

D) The Solar Hijri calendar

Answer · why

D) The Solar Hijri calendar

The Solar Hijri calendar starts its year at Nowruz, and in the 1970s Iran briefly swapped its Hijra year count for one dated from Cyrus the Great, dro...

Q 03/05

Which astronomical event fixes the date of Nowruz?

A) The heliacal rising of Sirius

B) The first new moon of spring

C) The Northern Hemisphere spring equinox

D) The Northern Hemisphere winter solstice

Answer · why

C) The Northern Hemisphere spring equinox

The Northern Hemisphere spring equinox fixes it, so families gather to await the exact moment the new year arrives.

Q 04/05

In which ancient religion do the roots of Nowruz lie?

A) Confucianism

B) Manichaeism

C) Zoroastrianism

D) Buddhism

Answer · why

C) Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism supplied the festival's sacred roots in ancient Iran; Nowruz remains a holy day for Zoroastrians and survived the Muslim conquest of Pe...

Q 05/05

About how long has Nowruz been celebrated?

A) About 100 years

B) About 300 years

C) About 1,000 years

D) About 3,000 years

Answer · why

D) About 3,000 years

About 3,000 years by most reckonings, and it outlasted the 1979 revolution too: clerics discouraged it, yet Iran's leaders took to issuing yearly Nowr...