Why Hafez Day falls on 20 Mehr
4 min read
Contrary to what most of us assume, the day of Hafez's death is recorded in no contemporary document. What we have are chronograms composed by later poets, and a tombstone carved centuries afterwards.
20 Mehr was placed in the official calendar by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution. The choice was not arbitrary: Mehr is Shiraz's month — the heat has broken, the gardens are still green, and the evenings have cooled enough to sit late at the Hafezieh.
So the date is less a historical claim than a cultural decision: the day on which going to the Hafezieh is better than on any other. Which may be the truest way to commemorate a poet who wrote, above everything, about timing.