The Great Sphinx of Giza has fascinated people for more than five thousand years. Because of its precise positioning, on the very day of the Nawruz, this majestic statue gazes directly toward the rising sun.
At the Mayan Temple of Kukulcan at Chichén Itzá in Mexico, the day of the vernal equinox, the setting sun casts a dramatic spectacle of undulating light and shadow on the northern stairway.
To the ancient Iranians, the return of spring was an annual symbol of the victory of light. The Japanese welcome the arrival of spring with the ceremony of Higan-e, symbolising spiritual enlightenment. Both the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter are spring festivals and their celebration is calculated with relation to the vernal equinox.
The Qurʾan (Surah al Fatir 35:9) compares the signs of spring, such as the revivification of barren lands by the life-giving rain clouds, to the Day of Resurrection:
“God is the One who sends forth the winds to stir up the clouds; then We drive them toward barren lands, giving life to the earth after its death. Thus is the Resurrection.”
The image of spring’s arrival plays a powerful role in Muslim cultures and numerous traditions sprang up to celebrate its advent. The symbolism of spring in general, and of Nawruz in particular, can be found in Ismaili thought and literature spanning virtually every major historical period and in the literary heritage of the three principal linguistic groupings: The Arabic of the Islamic heartlands, the Persian of Iranian and Central Asian traditions, and the various South Asian languages of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.
Two prominent uniting themes permeate the three broad traditions, regardless of time period or language: spring phenomena as a metaphor for the blessing of the Imam of the time, and the sacralisation of the earth’s springtide to convey knowledge of a spiritual world beyond sensory experience.
“… the true Nawruz is not the apparent one, marked by the Cusp of Aries. For the faithful, the actual New Day (ruz-e naw) is the day they mend their ways, transforming their behaviour and their very existence. In other words, a new day will dawn upon them when they exchange their iniquities and sins for virtues and noble deeds.” (1)
Tazyīn al-majālis (Ornament of Assemblies) by Da‘i Husayn b. Ya‘qub Shah (17th century)
(1) The vernal equinox is the point where the Sun moves from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere crossing the Earth´s celestial equator and its declination changes from negative to positive. For centuries, the vernal equinox, also called the March or spring equinox – marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the southern hemisphere – coincided with the Aries cusp or Aries point.
* Miriam Ali de Unzaga, extracts from Shafique N. Virani´s chapter "Spring´s Equinox: Nawrūz in Ismaili Thought," in Intellectual Interactions in the Islamic World: The Ismaili Thread, ed., Orkhan Mir-Kasimov (London: IB Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2020), pp. 453-481.
This chapter can be downloaded at https://shafiquevirani.org/spring-equinox/
