"Pre-Islamic seasonal festivals occupy a special place in Iranian culture. After the Arab conquest, these festivals have been one of the meaningful factors determining the national identity and distinctness of the Iranians. Myths and rituals connected with these festivals have been recorded in Zoroastrian religious writings as well as in the works of early Islamic authors. Some of the old customs - in particular those of the vernal New Year festival, Nouruz - are still continued to this day.

The book in hand tries to approach the phenomenon from an untypical perspective. Here we investigate a version of calendar mythology which has been preserved in Iranian popular culture, in the context of informal, rural time-recording systems. The survival of nature myths connected with a series of winter and spring festivals have been presented through the "portraits" of the ritual characters most representative of popular calendar beliefs. The studies presented here are of Iranian folklore in which elements arising out of the most ancient layers of Indo-Iranian heritage interfere with more recent, subsequent cultural borrowings and innovations."