Nowruz 2026 was on Friday, 20 March 2026 — it has already passed. The next Nowruz is on Saturday, 20 March 2027, in 129 days from today (11 November 2026). The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day. This page gives the 2026 date, what the day means, how it is observed, and the dates for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
Try the tool: Countdown Timer — count down to Nowruz 2026 live, second by second.
Try the tool: Days Until Calculator — count the days until any date, including Nowruz.
When is Nowruz 2026?
Nowruz 2026 is on Friday, 20 March 2026 — Friday. That date has passed; the next occurrence is Saturday, 20 March 2027 (129 days away). It is a Persian observance. The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day.
How the countdown is worked out
The countdown is the number of days from today to the holiday's date: the 2026 date is in the past, so the live countdown is to the next occurrence (20 March 2027), which is 129 days away. The count is in calendar days — it counts the days you have to wait, not the number of midnights, and it does not count today. The countdown timer recomputes the number live, second by second, and the days until calculator does the same calculation for any date you choose. If the holiday is in a different time zone from you, the day starts at a different moment — but the date is the date, and the countdown is in days, so the time zone does not change the number.
What is Nowruz?
Nowruz is the Persian New Year, celebrated on the spring equinox (around 20–21 March). It is over 3,000 years old and is observed across Iran, Central Asia and parts of the Middle East and South Asia.
How Nowruz is observed
Families set a haft-sin table with seven symbolic items, visit relatives, and celebrate with feasts and outdoor gatherings. It is a public holiday in Iran and several other countries, and UNESCO lists it as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
How the date is worked out
Nowruz follows a lunar or lunisolar calendar, so its date moves each year and the exact date depends on the moon sighting or the local calendar. The dates on this page are the expected dates; they can shift by a day. For planning travel or time off, confirm the date with an official source for your country — and for religious observance, with your local religious authority.
Nowruz dates — 2026, 2027 and 2028
| Year | Date | Day of the week |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 20 March 2026 | Friday |
| 2027 | 20 March 2027 | Saturday |
| 2028 | 20 March 2028 | Monday |
Nowruz 2026 in the calendar
Nowruz 2026 is the 79th day of 2026 — a year of 365 days — and it falls in ISO week 12 of the year. There are 286 days left in the year after it, and 31 days in March 2026. In the Northern Hemisphere it is spring; in the Southern Hemisphere the seasons are reversed.
The week number matters more than people think: in business and government across Europe, dates are often given as week numbers, and the week number finder gives the ISO week for any date. The day-of-year number is used in astronomy, in logistics and in some payroll systems. And the days-left figure is the useful one for planning the rest of the year: after Nowruz 2026 there are 286 days — 40 weeks — left in 2026.
Planning for Nowruz 2026
The 2026 observance has passed, so the planning horizon is the next one: Saturday, 20 March 2027 is 129 days away. That is 18 weeks — enough time to book travel, arrange time off and plan properly, and the earlier you book, the cheaper the travel usually is. The dates table above gives the next three years, so you can plan further ahead too.
Nowruz 2026 falls on a Friday — a weekday — so most people need to take the day off to mark it properly. Book the time off early, especially if the holiday is one people travel for: the days around a weekday holiday are among the busiest travel days of the year, and the fares rise as the date approaches.
The countdown in other units
The countdown to the next Nowruz (Saturday, 20 March 2027) is 129 days — which is 18 weeks and 3 days, 3096 hours, 185,760 minutes, or about 4.2 months. Of those 129 days, 92 are weekdays and 37 are weekend days — so if you are counting working days, there are 92 of them left before the holiday. The days between dates calculator works out the same numbers for any two dates, and the business days calculator counts the working days excluding public holidays.
Nowruz around the world
As a Persian observance, this day follows the solar Hijri calendar and falls on the spring equinox, around 20–21 March. It is a public holiday in Iran and is observed across Central Asia and parts of the Middle East and South Asia. UNESCO lists it as Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Planning checklist for Nowruz 2026
| When | Task |
|---|---|
| Now | The 2026 observance has passed — put the next one (Saturday, 20 March 2027) in your calendar, with a reminder a month before. |
| One month before | Book travel and request time off, if Nowruz means either. |
| One week before | Confirm plans, buy what you need, and check the date — lunar dates can shift by a day. |
More countdowns
If you are counting down to Nowruz, you may also be counting down to Christmas Day 2026, New Year's Day 2026, Easter Sunday 2026. And for the same holiday in another year, see Nowruz 2027 and Nowruz 2028.
Frequently asked questions
When is Nowruz 2026?
Nowruz 2026 is on Friday, 20 March 2026 (Friday). The exact date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day.
How many days until Nowruz 2026?
Nowruz 2026 has passed. The next one is Saturday, 20 March 2027, in 129 days from 11 November 2026.
What day of the week is Nowruz 2026?
Nowruz 2026 is a Friday.
When is Nowruz in 2027?
Nowruz 2027 is on Saturday, 20 March 2027 (Saturday).
Is Nowruz a public holiday?
Nowruz is widely observed, but whether it is a public holiday depends on the country — check your local calendar.
What is Nowruz?
Nowruz is the Persian New Year, celebrated on the spring equinox (around 20–21 March). It is over 3,000 years old and is observed across Iran, Central Asia and parts of the Middle East and South Asia.
How many weeks until Nowruz 2026?
The next Nowruz is 129 days away, which is 18 weeks and 3 days.
How many working days are left until Nowruz 2026?
Count the weekdays between today and the holiday: the business days calculator does it, excluding weekends and the public holidays you add. The countdown in other units above gives the weekday count for the next occurrence.
Sources
- IANA Time Zone Database, via Node.js Intl (
Intl.DateTimeFormatwithtimeZone) — offsets, daylight saving dates and local times in this article were worked out from the IANA database, not typed from memory. - TimeFlow's own time-zone data (
data/cities.ts,data/dst.ts), computed from the IANA database. - Holiday dates: TimeFlow's own holiday data (
data/holidays.ts). Lunar and lunisolar dates are labelled approximate: the exact local date depends on moon sighting or the local calendar and can shift by a day. - TimeFlow's countdown timer and days until calculator — the live tools behind the countdown on this page.
- Time-zone and daylight saving rules are set by governments and can change. For flights, deadlines and meetings that cannot move, confirm the time with an official source.