Birthday of Imam Ali

Imam Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad and the first Imam in Twelver Shi'a Islam, holds a central place in Iran’s religious and cultural life. His birth on 13 Rajab is a public holiday and has become closely associated with moral ideals of justice, courage, learning and care for family.

In contemporary Iran the date is also commonly observed as Father’s Day. That pairing makes the holiday both devotional and domestic: mosque programmes, speeches and charitable acts sit alongside calls, gifts and visits for fathers and older male relatives. As a Hijri date, it shifts in the Gregorian calendar and must be confirmed by the annual official calendar.

Iran’s official calendar identifies the anniversary as both Imam Ali’s birthday and Father’s Day, a modern civic association layered onto a religious feast. In Gregorian 2026 the Iranian lunar calendar places it twice—January 3 and December 23—because a lunar year is shorter than a solar year. Both occurrences belong to one holiday identity. Friday is the Labour Law’s weekly paid rest day, and Iran does not apply a universal Western-style Monday substitution rule when a holiday coincides with it.