Paitishahem Gahanbar
From the Multicultural Calendar
For a list of the upcoming religious and cultural observances, please visit our Multicultural Calendar, which serves as a valuable resource to foster understanding, accommodation, and respect for religious and cultural observances. It helps students, staff, and faculty plan events, activities, meetings, retreats, and courses throughout the year.
If you have updates, corrections, or suggestions for the calendar, please contact us at excellence@ucdavis.edu. All submissions will be carefully reviewed for inclusion.
In support of our patients, faculty, employees, students, and community members we would like to share the following resources for awareness, care, and guidance around accommodations to consider when hosting gatherings and/or meetings where food is provided during upcoming observances. We will be elevating the observances of various faith groups throughout the 2024-25 academic year, as part of a broader effort to elevate understanding and recognition of religious, faith-based, and spiritual identity.
Gahanbar is celebrated Friday, September 12, 2025. Each Gahanbar is a sacred period set aside for worship, reflection, and community. During this time, those observing devote themselves to spiritual practice and perform only the most necessary work, placing religious life at the center of daily activity.
There are six Gahanbars observed throughout the year, each lasting five days and marking a stage in the Zoroastrian understanding of creation. These festivals honor the divine order of the universe while also serving as times of fellowship, charity, and ritual feasting. The particular Gahanbar in focus here celebrates the creation of the earth and is also known as the “feast of bringing in the harvest,” recognizing both the bounty of nature and humanity’s role in stewarding it.
Recommended Accommodation: Each Gahanbar is a period to focus on worship and those celebrating will perform only necessary work.
For more information on observances celebrated during this time, please refer to the September 2025 - Multicultural Calendar.