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The first day of summer, the summer solstice which is the longest day in the year, is celebrated as the festival of Tirgan. And what better way to rejoice on a hot summer day than to douse each other with life-giving water? It is a day of picnics in the fields and parks and drenching each other with water. It is a day of fun and the enjoyment of nature. It is customary to tie a rainbow-colored wristband called Tir-o-Baad, representing the colors of the star Tishtar as it flickers in the sky. It shows that the ancient Iranians were far more knowledgeable than modern day historians and scholars can imagine. 

Tir is the name of the first month of summer, according to the Iranian solar calendar. Tir or Tishtar is the brightest star visible from earth before sunrise in summer. Its Greek name is Sirius, located in the Canis Major (Big Dog) constellation. The ancient Egyptians noted that when Sirius reappeared before daylight around the summer solstice the annual flooding of the Nile River followed because of the monsoon rains at its source in Central Africa. When Tishtrya or Sirius appears in the evening sky in winter, there is snow and rain. In summer, the heat turns water into clouds which convert to rain later, giving rise to the epithet Rain Star. So in Tir Yasht, we read: "We sacrifice unto Tishtrya; We sacrifice unto the rains of Tishtrya.”  

The night sky fascinated ancient civilizations, giving rise to many myths. Several cultures associated Tishtrya with the bow and arrow. Hindu mythology associates it with hunting using the bow and arrow. The Chinese visualized a large bow and arrow across the southern sky formed by the constellation of Puppis and Canis Major. Similarly, the Egyptians depicted goddess Sopdet drawing an arrow at Sirius. 

  representing the colors of the star Tishtar

The Iranians saw in it an archer whom they called Erekhsha or Arash. He was holding the bow aiming an arrow at Tishtar. This imaginative depiction found its way into Tir Yasht. The constellation’s shape created the mythological archer Arash and the distance of its visibility before sunrise the arrow’s flight path. "We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star; who flies, towards the sea Vouru-Kasha, as swiftly as the arrow darted through the heavenly space, which Erekhsha (Arash), the swift archer, the Arya amongst the Aryas whose arrow was the swiftest, shot from Mount Khshaotha to Mount Hvanvant.” During the Islamic era, the Pahlavi text reinterpreted this verse by altering scientific information and giving it a mythological perspective. Arash, the archer, settles the border dispute by shooting an arrow to demarcate the border between Iran and Turan during the reign of Manucher Shah. Since Arash had infused his arrow with his life force, he melted away as the arrow flew towards its destination, thus dramatizing the constellation’s disappearance with the rising sun’s light. Here, again, mythology replaces science and belief replaces truth. 

The Arabs had imposed their lunar calendar on the Iranians. Within a few generations of trying to keep up with the legal calendar, the ancient Iranian calendar was in disarray and it no longer aligned with the seasons. The logical alternative was to set up a symmetrical system aligning the names of the day and the month. So out went science, and in came a logic reinforced superstition. Those Iranians who converted to Islam had more freedom; they managed to preserve their culture. They maintained Nowruz and Yalda which were celebrated on the correct days, the vernal equinox and winter solstice, respectively. That is why Zarathushtis also celebrate these two festivals on the correct date. But that is not the case with Mehregan and Tirgan. When based on wisdom and science, these festivals too have the potential for international celebration; but not when they are based merely on the coinciding of the name of the month and the day. 

What the Greeks perceived as a Big Dog, the Persians, Indians, Chinese and Egyptians saw as a bow and arrow. Arash-e-Kamangir, Arash, the archer, is an Iranian asterism, a group comprising seven stars instead of the Canis Major. The story of Arash-e-Kamangir is an inspiring myth. It is a later development and is not from the Avesta or the Shahnameh, as many had thought. According to the Shahnameh, Fareydoon divides his kingdom among his three sons, Salm, Toor and Iraj. Iraj gets the lands of Iran; the other two brothers are not happy with their share. They kill Iraj in cold blood. Fareydoon is very angry but does not want to wage war against his sons. The wife of Iraj, who was pregnant, gives birth to a baby girl. This girl grows up and gives birth to a baby boy. He is named Manucher and Fareydoon crowns him King of Iran. Manucher goes to war against his maternal uncles, Salm and Toor, and kills them in battle to avenge his grandfather. So there is no border dispute and no peace treaty. Manucher emerges a clear winner. 

According to the Shahnameh, the peace treaty with the Turanians was during the reign of Kai Ghobad; it was young Rostam’s first combat. When Rostam picked Afrasiab up by his belt and held him aloft, Afrasiab’s belt broke and he managed to escape. Afraid, Afrasiab advised his father, the Turanian king Pashang, to initiate a peace treaty with the Iranians and retreated to the other side of river Jehun. Arash is mentioned in a few verses of the Shahnameh, but in another context. 

The now famous story of Arash-e-Kamangir is from a poem by Siavsah Kasrae written in 1959 and not from the Avesta or Shahnameh, as believed. 

The connection of Tirgan with science becomes even more pronounced by the multicolored wristband, Tir-o-Baad.