Winter is (almost) here! So you get it! It's cold and gets dark really soon and stuff... And of course you'll know it when Chritmas decorations appear on the street like this! Like do we celebrate Christmas now?! Come on!
But what you may not know is that we have an occasion to celebrate these days, too! We have a very famous, beautiful celebration at this time of the year.
In our solar calendar, which I believe is unique in the world right now and I actually think that only Iran uses it as the official calendar, Winter starts in two days! The first night of Winter, meaning when the sun sets on the last day of Autumn, Yalda night begins.
Yalda is the longest night of the year! We have special plans for this night. It's our only Winter celebration these days, so you see how important it is for us. Families come together and have dinner. The food that is served does not matter, as it varies from Ghormeh Sabzi to fried fish depending on which part of the country that particular family is from. The real fun begins after that! So as it is the longest night and the beginning of Winter, we eat watermelons, which are summery fruits really! We intend to show that we remember the good, warm days and we know that they will come back after the nature completes its cycle. We have pomegranates, ajil (Persian mixed nuts), special sweets like Baslogh (a very delicious treat, kind of like Turkish delights) and we read the poems of Hafiz (the great Persian poet). We actually use his poems to foretell things about the year ahead. It's a night to gather, sing and laugh, and eat delicious food with family and friends.
This is a really ancient Persian tradition, which has its roots deep into history, probably more than 3000 years ago. In ancient times, people had this celebration to worship Mithra, god of sun. They believed that the longest night of the year shows the great battle between good and evil, light and dark, and no matter how long the night may be, the sun always wins and rises each morning.
The most amazing thing, which I think is more than a coincidence, is that it happens only four days before Christmas! We know that Jesus's birthday is probably in September, so it is kind of curious that two events from two different cultures are so close to each other and both of them have similar elements. Right?
Anyway, since this is probably my last blog of the year, so I better say "Merry Christmas" to those of you who celebrate Christmas, and a very happy Yalda to all of you Persian guys out there. Hope you enjoy Yalda wherever you are. Love you all!
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