Calendar and astronomical knowledge of the inhabitants of the Yagnob river valley

Abstract

In order to study the folk calendar and astronomical knowledge of the inhabitants of the Republic of Tajikistan, in summer 2022 an ethnographic expedition was conducted in the Yagnob river valley, where 26 informants from 10 villages were interviewed. In the 1970s, the Yaghnob people were resettled to the plain in the Zafarobod region and the Yaghnob valley became empty. Later, part of the inhabitants returned to their historical places of residence. The collected materials show that the returned population knows, on average, less than the residents of non-relocated villages. Currently, the Yaghnobis celebrate four traditional calendar holidays. Nawruz is the most famous of them. The answers of the informants testify that in Yaghnob there was no single and fixed date for celebrating of Nawruz. Usually it was celebrated in the interval between March 17 and 21. The date was determined by by the onset by sunrise or sunset near conspicuous stones located on the mountain profile. The holidays of Dzhuft baroron (the first plowing), Sada (beginning of preparation for field work) and Mekhrgon (completion of the harvest) are much less well-known. The last two of mentioned holidays have recently received national status. However, residents most often remember Dzhuft baroron. "Sitorai Hunuk" (Sirius, a cold star), "Parmi" (Pleiades), "Tarozu" (three stars of Orion's belt), as well as the Polaris Star, the constellations Ursa Minor and Ursa Major are the stars which the local population knows. The phenomena of the visibility of stars are associated with the events of everyday life until now.