Saturday
24 March 2001
Jameh
Madani, March 17, 2001
Translated
by Roya Monajem
Division
of time into centuries, years, seasons, months,
days and hours has served to facilitate the human
form of daily life and having specific names for
months and days, in a sense helps man to control
time. In general, from the point of view of
primitive man, time was divided into two parts:
sacred and profane. The sacred time was reserved
for divine religious affairs and the profane time
for the affairs of daily life. Sacred time was in
turn divided into two main parts: a part that was
spent on purely religious acts and rituals and the
other reserved for feasts, ceremonies and
collective and tribal gatherings. These feasts and
ceremonies were closely related to natural, cosmic
and atmospheric changes. Iranian Norouz is
one of these great feasts. However, it should be
noted that ‘the sacredness of times related to
cosmic and natural rhythms was not meant to be a
kind of appreciation of the physical aspect of
cosmic and natural phenomena. Primitive man that
considered himself as the reference point for
determining the qualities of the world thought of
all universal phenomena as having a soul and what
compelled him to worship and cherish was this very
soul and spirit of the world. In fact he believed
in the metaphysical existence of universal
phenomena and everything was based on spiritual
religious faith of man. The essential fact in the
world of plants was the birth of the plant,
reproduction of nature and renewal of life and not
merely the germination of the seed and the
physical growth of the plant. Another fundamental
aspect of the plant was its death and not its
withering and wilting. Every new moon meant a new
life and every dark moon implied death. It was
even thought that the sun is born everyday. In
this way, Nature had a much more extensive depth,
scope and meaning than what the man of our time
believes.
The
feasts related to the sacred time were sometimes
celebrated annually, such as Norouz, Mehregan
and Sadeh and sometimes they were held
monthly such as those celebrated at the time of
the emergence of the new moon. Celebration of some
of the feasts gave man the opportunity to put
behind the past profane time and his individual
and social blunders in order to begin a new life.
In addition to their inherent material aspects and
due to their deep effects on the spiritual life of
man, such specific times of renewal gave rise to a
series of magnificent prolific rituals and
traditions that are astonishingly common among
various human societies. Such similarity in fact
represents similar response of human societies to
the same effects of our surrounding nature. These
common rituals include: 1) cleaning one’s outer
and inner environment, deriving the devils and
evil spirits out of one’s home and village with
the help of incantations, spells and prayers, 2)
lighting and extinguishing a fire, 3) marching of
groups of people wearing black masks and 4)
emergence of knightly races such as wrestling and
as such. “In ancient Iran and even today, many
of these cults are still performed. Cleaning the
house, Khaneh Takani is still quite
prevalent. Even today, the public bathrooms (garmabeh)
are crowded on the night before Norouz for
the purpose of begining the new year with clean
body. Lighting candles on Sofreh Haft Sin
(see below) or turning on the light is the
remainder of the cult of lighting fires. In
relation to extinguishing fire, it could be said
that most probably such ritual could not be
performed in Iran due to the high respect that
people had for fire. Reading Koran or other
religious books at the time that the new year
starts can derive the devils and evil spirits out
of the house, village and city and asking for
divine mercy for the past sins can imply
abandoning the past and beginning a new life.”
History
of the Feast of Norouz
Lack
of written records makes it extremely hard to
determine the exact historical time of emergence
of the feast of Norouz. Nevertheless the
existing evidences show that it was celebrated by
native Iranians that lived in Iranian plateau
before the immigration of Aryan tribe to this
land. Ancient Iranians had most probably inherited
this tradition from Sumerians. There were two
great feasts celebrated in ancient Iran: the feast
of creation held at the beginning of autumn and
the feast of rebirth held at the beginning of
spring. The latter was related to ‘martyred
god’ of Sumerians. This god was killed at the
end of each year and was reborn at the beginning
of the new year when his rebirth was celebrated
due to its coincidence with the re-birth of plants
and seeds.
During
the reign of Achaemenides, a magnificent
celebration was held at Perspolis at the beginning
of the new year. In this royal celebration the
king received representatives of all nations and
people who would bring him gifts and offerings.
The oldest references to Norouz are those
that attribute it to Jamshid and are described in
detail in Ferdosi’s Shahnameh. The existing
documents on Achaemenides also imply that Norouz
was celebrated as a great feast in this era. On
the other hand, there are sufficient records on
celebration of Norouz under the reign of
Sassanians. Lighting a fire on the night before
the beginning of the new year had been one of the
prevalent cults under Sassainians. And in the
morning of the first day of the new year, people
sprayed water on each other that was later
transformed into spraying of rose water.
What
is more important than determination of the exact
date of the emergence of the feast of Norouz
is its tremendous role in the culture and
disposition of Iranians, so much so that even the
victory and establishment of Islam could not
diminish its vital place and importance in the
life of people.
The
rituals and cults of Norouz have naturally
gone through a lot of changes during the long
history of this great feast to the extent that
today it has rather a symbolic function. The most
enduring cults and rituals of Norouz are briefly
as follows:
The
first day of Farvardin (= the first Iranian month)
The
most interesting point about Norouz and the
new year is that it coincides with the first day
of the first month of spring. In other words, the
new day and year coincide with the renewal of
spring and rebirth of nature.
Mir
Norouzi
This
ancient cult refers to the social political shifts
of positions of people. The native governor was
symbolically dismissed and replace by Mir
Norouzi who ruled the region for five days
after which he would concede the kingdom back to
the real governor again.
Haji
Firouz (a man with
the following description that appears in the
streets about a week before the onset of the new
year, heralding the arrival of Norouz by
singing and dancing joyfully).
He
is the symbol of return of Siavash. His black face
is the symbol of his return from the world of the
dead and his red robe is the symbol of the blood
of Siavash; and his joy is the symbol of the joy
of his resurrection and rebirth. ‘An ancient
ritual with little remaining traces, but quite
widespread in Mid Asia was the cult of Siavash
that originally it was most probably held at the
beginning of summer and the new year of summer
crops that under the influence of Babylonian Norouz,
the date of its celebration was shifted to the
beginning of spring during the rule of
Achaemenides. The main evidence of the fact that
the cult of Siavash used to be held at the
beginning of summer is found in the works of
Abureyhan Bironi and also in Sogdian and Kharazmi
calendars. These calendars begin with the sixth
day of Farvardin, the day of Siavash’s return,
that is called the great Norouz in our
calendar and according to Zoroastrian mythology it
is the day of retribution of Sivash’s blood.’
Chahar
Shanbeh Souri
The
last Wednesday of the year is when the feast of Chahar
Shanbeh Souri is celebrated. Souri
means red and that is why people lighted fire and
in this way they celebrated the disappearance of
the cold weather of winter. They believed that the
weather will not get cold after lighting this fire
and Nature will warm up. Or it could have been the
symbol of the disappearance of darkness and
appearance of light and warmth. (Let us not forget
that Fire is regarded as a religious sacred symbol
among Zoroastrians. Even today, we hear people
say, ‘kill the fire’ as though it is a live
creature or for describing a childless family it
is said that ‘its oven is cold.’)
In
regard to Chahar Shanbeh (literally meaning
the fourth Saturday i.e. Wednesday), some believe
that Chahar (four) is the symbol of the
four seasons and some think that as Arabs regarded
this day as an unlucky day, they believed that
they had to have a feast for this day. Before
Islam, this feast was called ‘Jashn
(feast of) Souri’ and the term ‘Chahar
Shanbeh Souri’ is the termed used after
Islam as the days of the week had other names in
Iran before the advent of Islam.
Thirteen
days of Norouz
The
twelve days of the feast of the new year symbolize
the twelve month of the year. Each day of these
twelve days symbolize one of the months of the
year. Therefore, the twelve days are equivalent to
twelve month each having 30 days. However, twelve
months amount to 360 days, but there are 365 days
in a year. The thirteenth day of Farvardin is the
symbol of these five extra days that is the end of
the year symbolizing the final chaos of the world.
Sizdeh
beh dar
A
very ancient cult celebrated on the thirteenth day
of Farvardin when people go to the countryside,
mountains or deserts or at least to a place other
than where they live. Iranians regard the number
thirteen unlucky and ominous. But why was this
number regarded unlucky and why Iranians consider
it ominous to work and engage in serious
activities on this day? According to Mehrdad Bahar,
the great contemporary Iranian mythologist:
‘Iranian astrological mythology was greatly
under the influence of Mesopotamian astrology
according to which each of the twelve stars ruling
each house of Zodiac would rule the world for
thousand years. It implied that the world lasts
for twelve thousands years and at the end of this
period, the earth and sky fuse. According to
ancient beliefs what ever that takes place in the
macrocosm (existence) occurs in the microcosm
(human world) too (as above, so below). That is
how the presence of twelve months in a year was
justified... The feasts of the first twelve days
of the year represent twelve months of the year
and the life of the world that lasts for twelve
thousands years. Ancient man believed that what
happened during these twelve days would represent
his fate during the corresponding year. They grew
different kinds of seeds before Norouz and
whatever seed that grew more and better during
these twelve days was chosen as the crop to be
cultivated that year and they thought that if
these twelve days proved to be depressing, the
whole year would be depressing. If at the end of
the twelve thousands years of the life of the
world, the earth and sky fused and the primitive
chaos returned and if at the end of the world,
order and law were violated accordingly, then at
the end of the twelfth day, there should be a day
representing this final chaos and that of the end
of the year. On this day, carrying out the daily
tasks and observance of the general order should
accordingly be interrupted. The unluckiness of the
thirteenth day of the feast represented the final
collapse of the universe and its order.’
Thus
in order to deliver ourselves from such chaos and
disorder, it is better to spend the day outside
our native dwelling so that if for example the
houses were ruined we would remain unharmed.
Cleaning
of the house (Khaneh Takani)
Cleaning
up one’s house and clothing, washing up one’s
dwelling and one’s body and wearing new clothes
were among the rituals still quite prevalent. In
the same way that Nature and the natural world
clean up and throw out their old clothing and wear
a new one, men too should clean and wash up
themselves. Spiritual cleaning up is even more
important than the material one. Asking for
forgiveness for one’s past sins, reconciliation,
showing compassion, going to cemetery, visiting
the hospitals, giving charity and new year gifts,
visiting the elderly and other relatives, are
among the widespread traditions of these days.
Haft
sin
Setting
up Sofreh Haft sin that consists of the
following seven items beginning with the letter
‘s’ garlic, sumac, samanou (wheat
sprouts cooked in a quite laborious way),
hyacinth, vinegar, apple, oleaster (or wild olive)
is one of the most popular traditions of the cult
of new year. On the symbolism of Haft sin
Mehrdad Bahar writes: ‘I believe Haft sin represent
the seven planets that rule human destiny and are
also responsible for the sacredness of the number
seven and it was thought that if anybody would
have access to all the seven – that implies that
one attracts the blessing of all these seven
planets – one would attain happiness.
Source:
Payvand.com
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