By Heidi Noroozy
Jashneh Sadeh celebration in Tehran Credit: Farzad J |
It’s Christmas Eve
and for many people around the world, tomorrow marks the highlight of one of
the year’s most festive seasons. With so much holiday cheer to go around, it
may be hard to imagine a time when all you want is for spring flowers to
replace winter’s snow and for Jack Frost to go nipping at someone else’s nose.
But the winter blues
are just around the corner. You can count on it.
The ancient Persians
had a remedy for the cabin fever that sets in around the middle of the cold
season. They banished the blues with a festival called Jashneh Sadeh, or
Celebration of the 100 Days, held on the tenth day of the Iranian month of
Bahman, which coincides with January 30 on the Gregorian calendar.
The festival derives
its name from the fact that it falls just 50 days and 50 nights before Eid-e
Norooz, the Persian New Year festival that marks the first day of spring. I’ve
written about that festival in this space before. You can find the post here.
According to Persian
legend, the mythological King Hushang established Jashneh Sadeh after a hike in
the mountains, where he encountered a poisonous snake and tried to kill it with
a stone. But his aim was off and instead of hitting the serpent, the stone struck
another rock. A spark flew up and ignited dry underbrush. King Hushang had
discovered the art of lighting a fire.
The Zoroastrians
took up the tradition and celebrated Jashneh Sadeh as a fire festival. They
believed that a bonfire built in midwinter defeated the demons of frost and
cold, who turned water to ice and destroyed the roots of life-giving plants.
The fire was often built near water or in the temple of Mehr, the guardian of
the sun.
Before lighting the
bonfire, priests recited the Atash Niayesh,
prayers associated with fire. They ignited the sacred flame at sunset and
allowed it to burn all night, while the people sang, danced, and feasted
through the night. In the morning, women lit torches from the ritual blaze, brought
them to their own hearths and built new fires from the one blessed by the
priests, spreading the spirit of Jashneh Sadeh throughout the community.
The preparations
began the day before the festival, when teenage boys and adult men headed to
the mountains to gather wood, a rare resource in the arid parts of Iran. In
modern times, with wood even scarcer, the boys (and sometimes girls) go door to
door collecting whatever wood they can find, from broken furniture to branches
trimmed from backyard fruit trees. They chant the words: “Give me a branch and
God will grant you a wish. Refuse me a branch and God will deny your wish.”
Sound a bit like trick or treat?
The winter solstice
on December 21 may be the longest night of the year, but Iranians consider the
night of Jashneh Sadeh to be the coldest. The tenth of Bahman marks the turning
point of winter, and the weather will get warmer as spring approaches.
Zoroastrians around
the world still celebrate this mid-winter festival as a religious rite. But
many secular Iranians have adopted it as a way to connect with their ancient
past. For some, the holiday is a time for slaughtering a ritual lamb and
sharing food with the poor. I can’t think of a better way to chase away the
winter blues.
This festival sounds like a lot of fun! A great way to warm up before spring arrives.
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