Zoroastrian Calendar - The Reckoning of Years

The Reckoning of Years

16 June 632 CE is the start date for the current mainstream Zoroastrian reckoning of years. Yazdegird III was the last monarch of the Sasanian dynasty, and since the custom at that time was to count regnal years since the monarch ascended the throne, the reckoning of years was continued, in the absence of a Zoroastrian monarch, under Islamic rule. Zoroastrian dates are distinguished by the suffix Y.Z. for Yazdegirdi Era. The usage "AY" is also found.

The contemporary Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, and in isolated pockets of Asia Minor, uses an alternative reckoning of years which predates the Yazdegirdi Era, being based on a supposed date of the birth of Zoroaster on 3 March 389 BCE. On this calendar, 27 July 2000 CE was the first day of Zoroastrian year 2390.

Yet another form of reckoning is the Zarathushtrian (Zoroastrian) Religious Era (Z.E.R./ZRE), adopted in 1990 by the Zarathushtrian Assembly of California. This is based on the putative association of the mission of Zoroaster with the dawn of the astrological Age of Aries, calculated for this purpose to have been the Northward vernal equinox of 1737 BCE. Hence the year 3738 ZRE began in 2000 CE. The Zoroastrian community, both in Iran and in diaspora, have also been said to have accepted it, the former doing so in 1993 CE. A briefing paper from the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe indicates that they recognise this usage to have been pragmatically adopted by Zoroastrians in Iran, while the diaspora continues to use the YZ system.