On the Religious Year

Abstract

Chapter 25 addresses everyday timekeeping, including the calendar, the divisions of the year, the lengths of day and night, and the periods of the day. The chapter refers to three different calendars and two different divisions of the seasons. One divides the year in half between summer and winter, following the Avestan tradition, while the second divides the year into four seasons of three months each. Days, in turn, are divided into five ritual watches (gāh) in summer and four in winter, when days are shorter. Prayers were to be said five times a day, during each of the five watches. The chapter’s digression on the climatic conditions of India in summer and winter may be a late addition reflecting the Zoroastrian community’s resettlement in the subcontinent in the centuries following the Muslim conquest.