[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #64285: Add Native Support for Persian (Jalali) Calendar in WordPress Core

[WordPress Trac]

#64285: Add Native Support for Persian (Jalali) Calendar in WordPress Core
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 Reporter:  dangeraligol                         |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request                      |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal                               |  Milestone:  Awaiting
                                                 |  Review
Component:  Date/Time                            |    Version:
 Severity:  critical                             |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  accessibility, rtl, rest-api,        |
  performance, php-compatibility                 |
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 Hello WordPress Core Team,

 I would like to request native support for the Persian (Jalali) calendar
 to be added to the WordPress Core Date/Time system.

 The Persian calendar is used daily by more than 110 million native
 speakers across Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and diaspora communities
 worldwide. WordPress has one of the largest user bases in these regions,
 and many business websites—including e-commerce, booking/reservation
 systems, government portals and educational platforms—must display dates
 in the Jalali calendar.


 ---

 Reasons for proposing native Jalali calendar support

 1. Very large Persian-speaking user base

 Persian is one of the most commonly used languages in WordPress
 installations. Many active sites rely on correct Jalali date handling,
 especially in:

 WooCommerce (order dates, invoices)

 Booking / Appointment plugins

 Events / Calendar systems

 LMS platforms

 Government and corporate portals


 Native support would greatly improve the experience for millions of users.


 ---

 2. Existing solutions (plugins) cause technical conflicts

 For more than a decade, Persian users have been forced to rely on external
 plugins for date conversion. These plugins frequently cause issues such
 as:

 conflicts with WooCommerce date operations

 incorrect timestamps

 broken booking systems

 inconsistency between frontend and backend dates

 incompatibility with block editor date components

 REST API mismatches


 Native support inside Core would eliminate all plugin-level conflicts and
 ensure consistent behavior across the entire WordPress ecosystem.


 ---

 3. Growing platform-level support

 Modern operating systems now support the Persian calendar at the system
 level:

 Windows 10 and Windows 11 include a native Persian calendar

 Android includes partial Persian calendar support

 Unicode CLDR contains Persian locale data (fa-IR) and Jalali date
 formatting patterns


 This shows that global system-level support for the Persian calendar is
 growing and aligns with WordPress’s internationalization goals.


 ---

 4. Aligns with WordPress’s mission of global accessibility

 WordPress core already includes built-in support for several calendars and
 international formats.
 Adding Jalali calendar support would significantly enhance accessibility
 and usability for a major global language community.


 ---

 Proposed implementation approach

 I am not requesting a change in database storage or UTC behavior.
 The proposal is limited to adding a calendar layer within the Date/Time
 API, similar to how local formats are already handled.

 Suggested additions:

 1. Add a Jalali calendar option to WP_Locale and date formatting
 functions.


 2. Add Jalali support to the JS date components used in Gutenberg
 (DatePicker, etc.).


 3. Ensure REST API returns consistent date formats when Jalali is enabled.


 4. Provide a switch in Settings → General → Site Language to automatically
 enable Jalali when “Persian (fa_IR)” is selected.



 This would preserve backward compatibility while enabling a fully native
 experience.


 ---

 Community support

 Multiple discussions over the past years in the Persian WordPress
 community show high demand for this feature. Many developers have also
 created third-party patches or polyfills to emulate Jalali behavior.
 Consolidating these into a Core-level implementation would benefit
 millions of current and future users.


 ---

 Conclusion

 Adding native Jalali calendar support would be a major improvement for
 WordPress internationalization and would fix many long-standing problems
 that cannot be resolved at plugin level.

 I kindly request the Core team to consider evaluating and discussing this
 enhancement for inclusion in a future WordPress release.

 Thank you for your time and consideration.
 We are ready to collaborate, test, and provide any technical assistance
 needed.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64285>
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