The Hijri year begins with the crescent of Muharram, and it is not a celebration — the tenth day, Ashura, is one of the most solemn dates in the Shia calendar.

The year count starts from the migration to Medina in 622, not from a birth, which is unusual among calendar eras. Because the year is purely lunar the new year moves through the seasons like everything else, and there is no fixed relationship to any solstice — which removes most of the usual reasons a culture throws a new year party.