Some time after the 3rd issue of EVENTS went to the printers – in fact when the printed magazine was about to
reach the head office – the tragic earthquake of Bam occurred and grieved and shocked, not only the Iranian nation, but the whole world. The only thing that helped Iranians to bear the great pain was the sympathy and support that the world extended towards them. Many brave men and women of conscience, courage and magnanimity rushed to Iran to help the people of Bam, to rescue the surviving persons trapped under tons of rubble, and care for the injured and those who had lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters… some even entire families! To these men and women we express our deepest thanks and shall forever
be grateful to them. To the survivors of Bam go our deepest and most sincere condolences.

However, since the time the quake occurred, so much has been said in the media about the tragedy that I feel there is no point in our repeating them here again. Therefore, we shall not deal with the incident in this issue and will confine ourselves to expressing our sorrow and giving, below, a couple of pictures of some foreign rescue teams.

But we have to live on and we have the Norooz ahead! In fact this issue will probably get into circulation after the Iranian New Year. We wish all those who consider themselves Iranian or of Iranian origin, anywhere in the
world, a very Happy New Year.

I shall not deal with the main articles printed in this issue, as I have done in the past issues. Instead, I should like to quote from a facsimile sent to me by my dear friend, Asad Askari, who is a Subbi or Mandaean himself,
some remarks about the article printed in the 3rd issue under the title of Mandaeans. He writes: “There are slight mistakes in your information which I correct below:
“a) The Mandaean year has 12 months (each 30 days) with 5 days, the Banjeh or Parvanaya, a 5 day feast, making the year 365 days. The dates of the feast change in leap years. So, the Parvanaya this year begins on
18th and finishes on 22nd March.
“b) All Mandaean rituals are held after sunrise or before sunset (nothing during the night).

So before sunrise should be corrected to “after sunrise”. I thank Mr Askari and apologize for the inaccuracies in the article.