The Chronicle of the Flame
From the two Spirits before time, through the prophet, the empires, the long night of conquest and the scattering of the keepers, to the Renovation still to come. We count the years in three reckonings at once — for the fire is older than any one of them.
(from 1738 BCE)
(from 632 CE)
(CE)
This is the present year, told three ways. Scroll, and the embers will light as you pass. Touch any ember to unfold its story.
Naqš-e Rostam
Four kings sleep in this cliff in Fārs. Upon their tombs, the oldest dated confession of the faith — and below them, time keeps walking.
The Wheel of the Year
Every day of the Zoroastrian month bears the name of a divinity, and every month is dedicated to one. Where day-name meets month-name, the calendar itself commands a feast — a jashan. The wheel below turns to set today at its crown: twelve months on the rim, the thirty day-divinities within, the five Gatha days at the year's hinge. Touch any cell to read its dedication.
The Order keeps the Fasli — the seasonal reckoning — in which 1 Farvardin falls on the spring equinox, 21 March, and the five Gatha days close the year before it. Shahanshahi and Qadimi communities keep the same names but begin the year in high summer, their calendars having drifted from the seasons across the centuries of exile. The names are one; only the counting differs.
A note on the years: scholars debate the prophet’s date across five centuries, and no reckoning is beyond dispute. The Order keeps 1738 BCE as its symbolic Year One — the date long honoured in the community as the dawn of the faith — while the priesthood still counts liturgical years from Yazdegerd III in 632 CE. We give all three, and let the fire be the judge of time.