Love Day; An Iranian Custom

Iran is a rich country in having a wide numbers of varied customs. In 20 century B.C Iranians arranged a calendar which had 12 month; each month included 30 days and those 5 left days were set in that calendar separately.

Each month had a name and also days in the months had their special names. For example the first day of each month named “AHOURAMAZDA”, the second day called “BAHMAN”, the third one, “ORDIBEHESHT”, the forth day, “SHAHRIVAR” and the fifth day named “SEPANDARMAZ”. In each month there was a day which had the same name as the month, people celebrated those days and had lots of fun together. SEPANDARMAZ which was the name of the 5th day in each month and also the name of the 12th month in a year was an epithet of the ground. In those days people believed that the ground is a symbol of love because it loves every living creature with modesty and gives them their daily bread. It loves all of them the same and gives protection to them. So in our ancient culture “SEPANDARMAZ” was a symbol of love. Because of this philosophy they celebrated the 5th day of the last month in a year and they called that day “Love Day”. In that day the spouses bought presents and showed their love to each other. Nowadays the “Love Day” is celebrated on 29th of the 11th month of each year. It is because of those 5 extra days. SEPANDARMAZ is a celebration of love and the ground which are become meaningful together.