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Some 300 million people around the world are starting their annual celebration of renewal and harmony with nature in what is to them the biggest cultural holiday of the year, typically involving 13 days of rituals. Nowruz (alternatively spelled Nauruz, Nauryz, Navruz, Nevruz, Nooruz, Norooz, Norouz, or Novruz), also known as Persian New Year (Nowruz means “new day” in Persian), is celebrated across ethnic groups with a common Silk Roads heritage, including Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkey, as well as their diaspora in other countries. Watch more from TIME Click to Learn More AD pause volume_off...

Google commemorates Nowruz, the Persian New Year, with a vibrant doodle symbolizing equal daylight and darkness on the vernal equinox. The doodle features haft-sīn, a table Google has created a colourful and vibrant doodle to celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Nowruz means 'new day' in Persian and it aligns with the vernal equinox, marking the period when daylight and darkness are nearly equal in duration.The Google doodle consist of multiple colourful elements which represent the Persian culture. The doodle comprises of traditional calligraphy, floral designs and the most important tradition haft-sīn.For those unaware, Haft-sin is a distinctive table arrangement...

A senior Russian Orthodox Church official is calling for Russia to return back to its traditional Julian calendar that was used until February 1918. In a televised interview with church-affliliated Spas TV on January 16, Aleksandr Shchipkov said the shift to the Gregorian calendar by the Bolsheviks a century ago was a bad idea. "[Their] goal was to break tradition, psychologically break the Russian people, to paralyze their will," said Shchipkov, first deputy chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's public relations department. "The only structure that preserved the old style is the church, which is truly the preserver of tradition,"...

This Monday is the federal holiday Washington's Birthday, better known as Presidents Day, celebrated on the third Monday of February. If you want to know the actual birth date of George Washington, you will find two dates: Feb. 22, 1732, and Feb. 11, 1731. Both dates are correct. What accounts for the discrepancy? When Washington was born, Britain and its colonies were using the Julian calendar. Developed in first century B.C. under Julius Caesar, it had three too many leap days per 400-year period. The Catholic Church corrected the error in the 16th century by introducing a modified calendar (the...