Shab-e Yalda December 21

Yalda is one of the four milestones of the Persian calendar. It is in fact the celebration of the winter solstice, because the Persian new year (Nowruz) is celebrated on March 21st, the first day of spring. The festival of Yalda takes place on December 21, and is celebrated every year on the last day of the month of Azar. It is the passage between the month of Azar and the month of Dey symbolizing creation.

It celebrates the birth of Mithras, Zoroastrian god of fire and sun, symbol of love More and forgiveness. Disfigured in pagan worship upon his arrival in Rome-Europe by taking on the masculine face! Subsequently, the nights begin to shorten and the days become longer and longer and the clarity prevails over the darkness of the night.

Iranians have, from the beginning, celebrated this eve of Shab-e-Yalda by savoring “shab-chéré”, as well as nuts (symbol of good new year) and fruits with red centers, notably pomegranates and watermelons, because the red represents fire, symbol of the sun which illuminates the Earth. They then make wishes for the new year and to say goodbye to autumn.

The most important moment of this celebration is the reading of the Divan-e-Hafez, the Divân of the famous poet Hâfez (حافظ). Everyone therefore makes a wish without revealing it and opens the book randomly then reads the poem aloud and finally all the guests help him interpret it. This poem will respond to the wish and guide the coming year, a kind of prediction of the future.