Yalda night
The Yalda night , Persian Schab-e Yaldā (شب يلدا, DMG šab-e yaldā , 'night of birth', composed of Persian šab , "night", and Aramaic yaldā , "birth"), is a Persian festival that takes place on the "longest and darkest night of the year" in Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan is celebrated. It is the night of the winter solstice , according to the current calendar from December 21st to 22nd (in the leap year of the night from December 20th to 21st). In the Iranian-Zoroastrian calendar , this corresponds to the night from the 30th Azar (fire) to the 1st Dey ( Creator ). At the same time, Yalda is also the festival on “the eve of the first forty days of winter”. The festival originally dates back to ancient Iranian times and is still celebrated today by the predominantly Muslim peoples of the Iranian culture and Central Asia . It is about the "birth of the (pre-Zoroastrian sun god) Mithra " (Middle and New Persian مهر, DMG Mihr , 'Light, Love, Mercy, Friendship, Kindness, Compassion'), the symbol of which is the isosceles cross (" + ").
Name and story
Another Persian name of the festival is Schab-e Tschelle (h) (= Schab-e Tschehel) , "Night of Forty (days)". Originally, this was not a festival, but a religious custom to protect yourself against evil on the longest and darkest night of the year. In the Zoroastrian tradition, night hours were a time of demons (see dew s) and other evil henchmen of the satanic Ahriman . In addition, it was believed that the dark forces were particularly strong and active on the longest and darkest night of the year, and people were advised to remain vigilant and seek protection in the crowd with trusted friends and relatives. The family festival developed from this custom, as it still exists today.
The number forty (chehel) in the name Schab-e Tschehel , pronounced Schab-e Tschelleh , is a reference to the first forty-day section of winter, which begins on the day after Schab-e Tschelleh (see below). The name of the festival or the evening before it is also used is Yalda . According to some scholars, this word originally came from Christianity, more precisely from branches of the early Church of the East , as represented in the Sassanid Empire and found protection there . In the Middle Aramaic dialect , as it was used by this Eastern Church, but also generally for centuries in the Iranian Empire as a lingua franca, Yalda literally means birth and was interpreted in the Christian sense as a term for the birth of Christ . Although it is not clear which way this term had taken, Christmas Eve was celebrated in the early church on the night of the winter solstice, on the same night as Schab-e Tschelleh. It is believed that this commonality led to the name of the traditional festival being carried over to the Christian festival. Today both terms are interchangeable.
Both terms are only documented from Islamic times. An older name of the night festival is not known, only that of the following day. This day, the 1st day of the 10th month, is one of the twelve name days of the Zoroastrian calendar, in this case because the dedication of the 1st day (called Ormazd ) of every month and the dedication of the entire 10th month (called Dae , that is, creator, the standard epithet of Ormazd) cross on this day. Accordingly, the day was dedicated to the creation / act of creation of Ahura Mazdas and celebrated as Jaschn-e Ormazd . Even in the 10th century, long after the fall of the Zoroastrian Sassanid Empire, Al-Biruni testified to the meaning of the day and the names used at the time (in Chorasmia): Khorram-ruz 'happy day', Kwar-ruz 'sun day' or Navad-ruz 'ninety days [to Nowruz]…'.
Customs
On Yalda Night, friends and relatives gather in the houses of the elders, where they celebrate together throughout the night. Traditionally, melons, pomegranates and red grapes in Kongina /کنگينهcalled airtight clay bowls are preserved and baked fruit is eaten. Usually one sits around the korsi and reads from the Dīwān by the Persian poet Hafis . This is the Fal-e Hafez /فال حافظ, a kind of oracle consultation or prophecy based on the Hafez poems.
Another custom is the lighting of a great fire that represents light and hope. People are happy that the light is reborn and asserts itself against the darkness, because after the Yalda night the days get longer again.
In the ancient Persian tradition, the ruler came down from the throne on Yalda night and went into the desert. He sent servants and guards on vacation and went to a village to spend the night with simple farmers and to listen to them.
The Yalda Night in Poetry
The Yalda night has inspired poetry to many Persian poets, including Onsuri , Nāsir-i Chusrau , Jalal ad-Din Rumi , Hafiz , Saadi and Jami . Two examples:
| original | Translation by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall |
|
خلوت دل نیست جای صحبت اضداد |
[…] |
(1) Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall translated Yalda-Nacht as “darkness”.
| Original: poem by Saadi | translated into English by Amirkabir, translated by Rums divine sword |
|
روز رویش چو برانداخت نقاب شب |
[...] The |
Notes and individual references
- ^ Official and educational language of the pre-Islamic period of Iran.
- ↑ a b c d e f Anna Krasnowolska :: Sada Festival . In: Encyclopædia Iranica . iranicaonline.com, New York 2009.
- ↑ See Wikipedia article Mithraism and Christianity .
- ^ Elton L. Daniel, Ali Akbar Mahdi: Culture and customs of Iran. Greenwood. Westport 2006, p. 188.
- ↑ JPayne Smith (Ed.): ܝܠܕܐ. In: Syriac Dictionary. Clarendon, Oxford 1903, p. 192.
- ↑ See the opening section of this article.
- ↑ Fal-e Hafez (Persian)
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: mowlavi.recent.ir
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: hafez.recent.ir
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: saadi.recent.ir
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: hafez.recent.ir
- ^ German love lyric Hafez translation
- ↑ Shab e Yalda ( Memento from November 15, 2011 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Christmas is Shab-e Yaldâ ( Memento from January 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
