Ns News Online Desk:The longest nights of the year, corresponding to December, had a celebratory culture in Iranian culture. The winter solstice festival Shab-e Yalda (Yalda Night) brings together
The longest nights of the year, corresponding to December, had a celebratory culture in Iranian culture. The winter solstice festival Shab-e Yalda (Yalda Night) brings together members of Iranian families, like the Goodarzis, every year for night-long festivities marked by poetry, music and fruits.
They gather around “korsi,” a heated low table, which is neatly bedecked with fresh and dried fruits, sweets, candles, flowers and a poetry book of 14th-century Persian poet Hafez Shirazi, also known as Hafez.
The eldest member of the family recites poems from “Diwan e Hafez” (“Diwan of Hafez”) – diwan is a collection of poems by a poet – with a Sufi tune in the background, creating a spiritual ambiance.Fruits are an essential part of Yalda festivities. Pomegranates occupy the most important place on the table – symbolizing rebirth and revival. Melons and other fruits signify fertility, light and goodness.
The “longest night of the year,” for Iranian families, is also the most special, spent in family reunions and quiet celebrations until the break of dawn.
“I associate Yalda Night with vibrant hues of red, with the fragrance of pomegranates and melons, with the soulful poetry of Hafez, with family reunions, with everything good and blissful in life,” said Sahar Goodarzi, a university student from Tehran.
“It’s an integral and fascinating part of the centuries-old Persian culture and heritage, older than many other festivals across the world,” she told Anadolu Agency (AA).
The ancient fiesta is widely celebrated in Iran, and even by Iranians living overseas. It is also popular in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.Shab-e Yalda, which translates into “night of birth” in the ancient language of Syriac and falls between Dec. 21 and 22, dates back to the pre-Islamic period when the majority of Iranians followed Zoroastrianism.
The festival marks the end of autumn and the beginning of The ancient fiesta is widely celebrated in Iran
and even by Iranians living overseas.winter. It is also considered the “longest and darkest night of the year” in the Northern Hemisphere.
members of Iranian families, like the Goodarzis, every year for night-long festivities marked by poetry, music and fruits.
They gather around “korsi,” a heated low table, which is neatly bedecked with fresh and dried fruits, sweets, candles, flowers and a poetry book of 14th-century Persian poet Hafez Shirazi, also known as Hafez.
The eldest member of the family recites poems from “Diwan e Hafez” (“Diwan of Hafez”) – diwan is a collection of poems by a poet – with a Sufi tune in the background, creating a spiritual ambiance.Fruits are an essential part of Yalda festivities. Pomegranates occupy the most important place on the table – symbolizing rebirth and revival. Melons and other fruits signify fertility, light and goodness.
The “longest night of the year,” for Iranian families, is also the most special, spent in family reunions and quiet celebrations until the break of dawn.
“I associate Yalda Night with vibrant hues of red, with the fragrance of pomegranates and melons, with the soulful poetry of Hafez, with family reunions, with everything good and blissful in life,” said Sahar Goodarzi, a university student from Tehran.
“It’s an integral and fascinating part of the centuries-old Persian culture and heritage, older than many other festivals across the world,” she told Anadolu Agency (AA).
It is also popular in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.Shab-e Yalda, which translates into “night of birth” in the ancient language of Syriac and falls between Dec. 21 and 22, dates back to the pre-Islamic period when the majority of Iranians followed Zoroastrianism.
The festival marks the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. It is also considered the “longest and darkest night of the year” in the Northern Hemisphere.
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