Cyrus the Great Day

Cyrus the Great Day روز کوروش بزرگ
Iranians rallying around the tomb of Cyrus the Great, 29 October 2015
Status	Unofficial
Genre	Nationalist
Date(s)	7th of Aban (28th, 29th, 30th, or 31st of October)
Frequency	Annual
Location(s)	Pasargadae, Fars Province (AKA Persis)
Coordinates	30°11′38″N 53°10′02″E / 30.19389°N 53.16722°E / 30.19389; 53.16722
Country	Iran
Years active	1977–present
Activity	Publicly commemorating the legacy of Cyrus the Great and his Achaemenid Empire
Notable events	2,500th Anniversary of the Persian Empire (1971) Cyrus the Great Day Revolt (2016)

Cyrus the Great Day (Persian: روز کوروش بزرگ Rūz-e Kuroš-e Bozorg) is an unofficial holiday in Iran. Secular and nationalist in nature, it commemorates the legacy of Cyrus II of Persia, who founded the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BCE. It is observed annually on the 7th of Aban on the Iranian Solar Hijri calendar, thus corresponding to a date between the 28th and 31 October on the international Gregorian calendar.

Celebrations typically consist of public gatherings at Pasargadae, where the tomb of Cyrus the Great is located.^[1] Though Cyrus the Great Day itself has not had official recognition, similar gatherings at Pasargadae were informally endorsed by the Pahlavi dynasty, and former Iranian king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi also had Cyrus' tomb renovated for the 2,500-year celebration of the Persian Empire in October 1971. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic government has occasionally cracked down on celebratory gatherings at Pasargadae; the 2016 Cyrus the Great Revolt saw the eruption of a major anti-government protest near Cyrus' tomb, ultimately leading to the broader 2017–2018 Iranian protests. In October 2021, Iranian police officers barred people from visiting Cyrus' tomb for the holiday.^[2]