Until the Universal House of Justice decides upon the spot
on which the calculations for establishing the date of Naw-Ruz each year are to
be based it is not possible to state exactly the correspondence between Bahá'í
dates and Gregorian dates for any year. Therefore for the present the believers
in the West commemorate Bahá'í events on their traditional Gregorian
anniversaries. Once the necessary legislation to determine Naw-Ruz has been
made, the correspondence between Bahá'í and Gregorian dates will vary from year
to year depending upon whether the Spring Equinox falls on the 20th, 21st, or
22nd March. In fact in Persia the friends have been, over the years, following
the Spring Equinox as observed in Tihran, to determine Naw-Ruz, and the
National Spiritual Assembly has to issue every year a Bahá'í calendar for the
guidance of the friends. The Universal House of Justice feels that this is not
a matter of urgency and, in the meantime, is having research conducted into
such questions.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated October
30, 1974 to a National Spiritual Assembly; compilation: Developing Distinctive
Baha’i Communities, NSA of USA, 1998 edition)
