Nowruz is the Iranian New Year known as the Persian New Year, celebrated worldwide by various ethno-linguistic groups. Nowruz has Iranian and Zoroastrian origins, however, it has been celebrated by diverse communities for over 3,000 years in Western Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Black Sea Basin, the Balkans, South Asia, it is a secular holiday for most celebrants, enjoyed by people of several different faiths, but remains a holy day for Zoroastrians and some Muslim communities. Nowruz is the day of the vernal equinox, marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the first day of the first month of the Iranian calendars. It occurs on March 21 or the previous or following day, depending on where it is observed; the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day is calculated every year, families gather together to observe the rituals. While Nowruz has been celebrated since the reform of the Iranian Calendar in the 11th Century CE to mark the new year, the United Nations recognized the "International Day of Nowruz" with the adoption of UN resolution 64/253 in 2010.

The first day of the Iranian calendar falls on the March equinox, the first day of spring, around 21 March. In the 11th century CE the Iranian calendar was reformed in order to fix the beginning of the calendar year, i.e. Nowruz, at the vernal equinox. Accordingly, the definition of Nowruz given by the Iranian scientist Tusi was the following: "the first day of the official New Year was always the day on which the sun entered Aries before noon." Nowruz is the first day of the first month of the Iranian solar calendar. In the Shahenshahi and Kadmi calendars, which do not account for leap years, the New Year's Day has drifted ahead by over 200 days. Followers of those calendars celebrate the spring equinox as Jamshed-i Nouroz, with New Year's Day being celebrated in July–August as Pateti, the day of penitence"; the word Nowruz is a combination of Persian words نو now—meaning "new"—and روز ruz—meaning "day". Pronunciation varies among Persian dialects, with Eastern dialects using the pronunciation, western dialects, Tehranis.

A variety of spelling variations for the word nowruz exist in English-language usage, including novruz, nowruz and newroz. Nowruz's timing in Iran is based on Solar Hijri algorithmic calendar, based on precise astronomical observations, moreover use of sophisticated intercalation system, which makes it more accurate than its European counterpart, the Gregorian calendar; each 2820 year great grand cycle contains 2137 normal years of 365 days and 683 leap years of 366 days, with the average year length over the great grand cycle of 365.24219852. This average is just 0.00000026 of a day shorter than Newcomb's value for the mean tropical year of 365.24219878 days, but differs more from the mean vernal equinox year of 365.242362 days, which means that the new year, intended to fall on the vernal equinox, would drift by half a day over the course of a cycle. Charshanbe Suri (Persian: چهارشنبه‌سوری‎, romanized: čahâr-šanbeh sūrī is a prelude to the New Year. In Iran, it is celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz.

It is celebrated in the evening by performing rituals such as jumping over bonfires and lighting off firecrackers and fireworks. In Azerbaijan, where the preparation for Novruz begins a month earlier, the festival is held every Tuesday during four weeks before the holiday of Novruz; each Tuesday, people celebrate the day of one of the four elements – water, fire and wind. On the holiday eve, the graves of relatives are tended. Iranians sing the poetic line "my yellow is yours, your red is mine" to the fire during the festival, asking the fire to take away ill-health and problems and replace them with warmth and energy. Trail mix and berries are served during the celebration. Spoon banging is a tradition observed on the eve of Charshanbe Suri, similar to the Halloween custom of trick-or-treating. In Iran, people wearing disguises and go door-to-door banging spoons against plates or bowls and receive packaged snacks. In Azerbaijan, children slip around to their neighbors' homes and apartments on the last Tuesday prior to Novruz, knock at the doors, leave their caps or little basket on the thresholds, hiding nearby to wait for candies and nuts.

The ritual of jumping over fire has continued in Armenia in the feast of Trndez, a feast of purification in the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Armenian Catholic Church, celebrated forty days after Jesus's birth. In Iran, the Nowruz holidays last thirteen days. On the thirteenth day of the New Year, Iranians leave their houses to enjoy nature and picnic outdoors, as part of the Sizdebedar ceremony; the greenery grown for the Haft-sin setting is thrown away into a running water. It is customary for young single people young girls, to tie the leaves of the greenery before discarding it, expressing a wish to find a partner. Another custom associated with Sizdah Bedar is the playing of jokes and pranks, similar to April Fools' Day There exist various foundation myths for Nowruz in Iranian mythology; the Shahnameh credits the foundation of Nowruz to the mythical Iranian King Jamshid, who saves mankind from a winter destined to kill every living creature. Jamshid may symbolize the transition of the Proto-Ira

Proston is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Australia. In the 2016 census, Proston had a population of 379 people. Proston is a historic township with residences and Lake Boondooma; the town is located 280 kilometres north-west of the state capital, Brisbane 50 kilometres northwest of the South Burnett regions commercial centre, Kingaroy and 20 kilometres South of Lake Boondooma. It is the closest supporting township to Lake Boondooma and has a variety of shops including post office, grocery store, chemist, medical centre, hardware and clothing store; the area around Proston is hilly, grazing country, most of it cleared from the original brigalow scrub that once covered the immediate vicinity. The town's name is taken from a pastoral run name, which in turn was a corruption of an Aboriginal word meaning kurrajong tree; the town was founded in 1910 with a land ballot. With little access to water, early settlers struggled to maintain a living from the land; the coming of the railway in 1923 eased some of the early hardships.

The construction of the South Burnett Dairy Co-operative Butter Factory in 1934 led to more growth. Proston Provisional School opened on 9 July 1917 to provide schooling for the children of the workers constructing the Proston railway line, it closed on 31 July 1918. Although named Proston, the school name reflects the name of the railway line than its actual location, it is believed. The current Proston State School opened on 24 July 1924 as a primary school. In 1965 it expanded to include secondary education to Year 10. In 1977 it expanded to include a preschool. Shepherd Memorial Anglican Church of St Peter was dedicated on 3 March 1939 by the Most Reverend John William Charles Wand, its closure in circa 2015 was approved by Bishop Cameron Venables. The closure of the railway line and Butter Factory in the 1970s threw the area into a long period of slow decline; the creation of the nearby Boondooma Dam in the 1970s by damming the Boyne River provided a source of water for Tarong Power Station and solved Proston's water problems.

The Proston public library opened in 1994. At the 2006 census, Proston had a population of 304. Proston has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: corner of Drake Street and Wondai Road: Shepherd Memorial Church of St Peter The main agricultural activities in the Proston area are dairying, beef cattle and duboisia, a shrub used in the production of the drug butylscopolamine; the area is well catered for with clubs. There is the nine-hole Proston Golf Club on the western edge of town. Proston's Lawn Bowls Club and the Over 50's group are popular amongst the locals. Social tennis is held every Thursday night at Wondai Road; the locals have dances every week at the Public Hall. For fishing, the nearby Boondooma Dam is stocked with Australian bass, golden perch, silver perch and saratoga. There is a occurring population of eel-tailed catfish and spangled perch. Visitors to the dam can waterski and swim. For quieter fishing and canoeing, Proston Weir is located just south of the town; the weir doesn't provide toilet facilities or picnic tables.

The Proston Car Rally club holds a rally every three months on their track, 7 kilometres west of Proston on private property. The family weekends include time trials, various classes. Free camping is provided. Manar Park is an off-road park for 4x4s, dirt bikes and buggies, situated on a large cattle station north-east of Boondooma Homestead. Accessible along Manar Road the park does have camping facilities; the hilliness of the terrain provides striking panoramic views of the area at several points along the main road. Boondooma Dam is located 20 kilometres northwest of the township. In February each year, anglers compete for more than $4,500 in prizes in the Boondooma Yellowbelly Fishing Competition. A Stocked Impoundment Permit is needed to fish Boondooma Dam; the dam offers caravan, camping and cabin accommodation on the Lake's foreshores along with tennis courts, modern amenities blocks, a central kiosk and extensive landscaped picnic and BBQ areas. Another annual event is Campdraft. Held every March at the Showgrounds just on the western outskirts of town.

Nearby Boondooma Homestead was built in 1850 for the Lawson Brothers. The Building was built by a Flemish stonemason and during restoration, it was discovered to have been built to metric specifications a first in Queensland; the homestead can be found on the Durong to Mundubbera Road 50 kilometres west of Proston. An unusual attraction in Proston is Sidcup Castle; the "castle" comprises seventeen rooms. The entire structure was built from second hand materials by Harold Douglas and designed as an exact replica of his childhood home in Sidcup, Kent. Proston has a hotel, convenience store, café, post office, police station and voluntary fire brigade service, it has tennis and bowling clubs, a swimming pool and library. Other facilities include a medical centre and ambulance service, the Proston Rural Fire Brigade, the Proston Transfer Station; the South Burnett Regional Council operates a library in Proston at 34 Blake Street. The town is serviced by Proston Meals on Wheels. There is an active scout group.

The Proston branch of the Queensland Country Women's Association meets at the CWA hall at 37 Rodney Street. Proston State School i

Fredric Joel Harris is a professor of Electrical engineering and CUBIC signal processing chair at University of California San Diego and an internationally renowned expert on DSP and Communication Systems. He is the co-inventor of the Blackman-Harris Filter, he has extensively published many technical papers, the most famous being the seminal 1978 paper "On the use of Windows for Harmonic Analysis with the Discrete Fourier Transform." He is the author of the textbook Multi-rate Signal Processing for Communication Systems and the Source Coding chapter in Bernard Sklar's textbook on Digital Communications. He holds 17 patents on digital radio receiver technology. Harris received his B. S. from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, his M. S. from San Diego State University, his PhD from Aalborg University, did PhD course work at the University of California, San Diego. He is co-editor-in-chief of the Elsevier journal Digital Signal Processing. In early 2010 the "Fred Harris Endowed Chair in Digital Signal Processing" fund was established by Eric Johnson and Qualcomm executive Peggy Johnson.

The fund is described to encourage and enable future students to pursue careers in the communications speciality of electrical engineering and to honor Fred Harris' legacy. Official website: Archived fred harris Fund Website: Archived Google Scholar