Zoroastrian Solstice Celebration
In Iran, which today is a predominantly Muslim and Shiite country, the Muslims never succeeded in stamping out all the practices of the country’s ancient religion, Zoroastrianism. Witness to this is the Persian New Year Nowrooz, celebrated on March 21. This 13-day celebration of nature, gifts, special foods, and the visiting of friends and relatives, was frowned on by the late Ayatollah Khomeini as “un-Islamic.” Indeed it is, but Iranians refused to give it up.
A lesser-known Zoroastrian holiday is the celebration of the Winter Solstice. On December 21, when snow blankets much of Iran, Persians sit around low tables covered by quilts with a charcoal brazier underneath.
Religions and their symbols have a way of changing over time. Unlike the Japanese, whose art reflects their love for all seasons of the year, Persian art totally denies winter. Imagine summer in winter.
I remember as a young bride having my toes warmed under the table while the quilt kept out the room’s cold. A watermelon saved in straw in the larder from summer was brought out to be eaten by the family: the taste of summer in the middle of winter.
Zoroastrian festivals always centered on the Creator’s blessings: plants, animals, air, earth, fire, and water. Since this religion’s origins were centered on the agricultural cycle (about 1200 BC), foods were always featured in festivals … in the Prophet Zoroaster’s time, a winter solstice festival would have been like those seen in pockets of northern Europe; celebrating fire and remembering that the sun will return.