Sadeh festival

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Sede Festival, 2003

Jaschn-e Sadeh ( Persian جشن سده), German Sadeh or Sada festival , is an old Iranian festival that is celebrated 50 days before Nouruz , the Persian New Year festival. Sad means "hundred" and stands for the 50 days and 50 nights that will pass before the New Year celebrations, and in another reference for the hundred days that have already passed since the beginning of the Iranian "great winter" Zayana . The Sadeh festival is a mid-winter festival that is celebrated with large fires. The festival celebrates the importance of fire for humans, but also the victory of light over darkness.

History of origin

Sadeh goes back to Hushang , the second mythical king of the Pishdadians . Hushang ruled as Padishah for forty years . He continued the building of human civilization begun by Gayomarth . Huschang discovered by chance by throwing a stone at a snake, where the stone hit a rock and struck a spark, the secret of how a fire can be made with the help of stones . As a result of this knowledge, it became possible for him to use fire to produce iron from ore , from which axes, saws and hatchets could then be made. In order to keep the immediate value of fire for humans in memory and also to honor the reflection of God in the fire, Hushang founded a festival that he called the Sadeh festival. For the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism , fire is the focus of a cult as a symbol of purity, knowledge and light. In a Zoroastrian temple there is therefore a fire that should never go out.

The Sadeh festival in Schahname

The Iranian national poet Ferdosi described the establishment of this festival by Hushang as a festival of fire and light in the Iranian national epic Shahname as follows:

The
Lord of the world before him who created the world, offered prayer and a cry of thanks,
That he gave light to such guidance;
Then he gave the fire to the judge,
saying: "A divine shine that is,
worship when you are wise."
At night he stokes a fire high up from the mountains,
the Shah and the people circled the Loh.
A festival was through the night, wine was drunk:
Sede is said to be the name of the festival.
Sede stayed in Hoscheng's memory;
May God give us many princes like him.

Sadeh in what is now Iran

The Sadeh festival is still celebrated in Iran today. Big festivals take place especially in Kermān and Yazd , where a large Zoroastrian community still lives. In the mountains near Yazd there is a cave called Chak Chak. A ceremony is held in this cave every year for the Sadeh festival.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hashem Razi: Chronology And Ancient Iranian Festivals. Behjat Publications, Tehran, 2005, pp. 576f. ISBN 964-6671-37-3 .
  2. ↑ Friedrich Rückert : Firdosi's King Book (Schahname) Sage I-XIII. 1890. Reprint: epubli GmbH, Berlin, 2010, p. 10f. ISBN 978-3-86931-356-6 .

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