آذر

آذر carries fire in its name. The 9th month of the Persian calendar is named after the Yazata of fire, and the word still means “fire” in classical Persian.

What it actually means

آذر (âzar) is the 9th month of the Iranian solar calendar (تقویم هجری شمسی, taqvim-e hejri-ye shamsi), running from roughly November 22 to December 21. It is the third month of autumn (پاییز, pâyiz). In modern Persian آذر functions purely as a month name, but the word itself is older than the calendar use. In classical Persian آذر means “fire,” and it survives in compounds like آذرخش (âzarakhsh, lightning, literally “fire-strike”) and آتشکده (âtashkade, fire-temple, where آتش is the modern reflex of the same root).

Where it comes from

The month is named for Âzar, the Yazata (angelic being, ایزد) of fire in Zoroastrian cosmology. Each of the 12 Persian months is named for a Yazata, a holdover from the pre-Islamic Iranian calendar. The Avestan form was Âtar, and آذر is the Middle and New Persian descendant. Within the Zoroastrian month, the 9th day is also called Âzar, and when the day-name and month-name match, that day is the festival of Âzargân (آذرگان), historically a fire feast. The modern Iranian state calendar kept the name when it was reformed in 1925, which is why secular Iranians still write آذر on official documents next to a Yazata’s name.

How to say it

Formal (نوشتاری): آذر · âzar · “Azar (9th month)”

Colloquial (محاوره): آذر · âzar · same form across registers

The word does not change between formal and spoken Persian. You will hear it pronounced with a long â at the start, like “ah,” then a soft z, then a short “ar” with a tapped r.

In a sentence

• من آذرماه به دنیا آمدم. · man âzar-mâh be donyâ âmadam. · I was born in the month of Azar.
• آذر امسال خیلی سرد بود. · âzar-e emsâl kheyli sard bud. · This year’s Azar was very cold.
• شب یلدا آخرین شب آذر است. · shab-e yaldâ âkharin shab-e âzar ast. · Yalda night is the last night of Azar.

Cultural note

The 30th of Azar is the longest night of the year, شب یلدا (shab-e yaldâ), the winter solstice celebration that families spend reading Hafez and eating pomegranates and watermelon. So Azar is bracketed by two pieces of pre-Islamic Iran: the Zoroastrian Yazata at the top of the month and the solstice ritual at the bottom. Iranians of any religion or none keep both. The fire-name of the month, the long final night, the family gathering: a 3,000-year continuity that the Islamic Republic could not erase even when it tried.

Related

You will see this word together with آبان (the month before) and دی (the month after). For the calendar background see the Persian solar calendar guide.