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December 24, 2004
Happy Holidays!
Well, I certainly do not celebrate Christmas much, but I live in a country where many people do. I, however, do celebrate the Winter Solctice or "Yalda" which in Iran is a traditional night of staying up and having fruits and talking. I like it a lot and this year, I was fortunate enough to celebrate it with friends.
Talking about it, let's have some coo, entertaining history! Christmas actually has something to do with this celebration as well! Yalda is the longest night of the year, meaning from the day after that, days start to get longer and longer. This was interpreted in the ancient times as "Birthday of the Sun" (days become longer: sun is born!).
In ancient Mesopotamia, this was called the birthday of Shamash, the god of sun, and Yalda itself is a Babylonian word meaning "Birth".
Years later, the Iranian god "Mithra" was associated with sun as well and sometimes in the pre-Christian centuries, many of the characteristics of Shamash were assigned to Mithra. This Mithra was taken to the west by some Roman legionaries and a new religion, called Mithraism, was established among the Roman legionaries (the most famous adherent of which was Empero Julian the Apostate). Mithras in this religion was also called Sole Invictus (the Victorious Sun), a further association with Sun.
So, Yalda became the Birthday of Mithras. It was one of the most popular celebrations in the late pagan Roman times.
Early christians did not have a fixed day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. His birth was recorded in the Jewish lunar calendar and was thus celebrated on different dates. It was also later fixed in different Solar calendars in different countries (hence the celebration of Christmas on the 6th of January in the Greek Orthodox Church).
However, early church fathers, who were not as dogmatic as their successors, thought it would be a good idea to fix the date of Christmas near the date of the popular Birthday of Mithras (Yalda). Thus, they chose this day (originally December 22nd, later became 24th after the Gregorian Calendar reform), and Yalda became Christmas in Western Europe!
Nice and interesting story, isn't it? Anyway, where-ever you are, have a happy holiday, enjoy the snow (I love it, but I am in California!) and the presents. Happy Yalda, Christmas, Channukah, and whatever other celebrations I don't know about!
Posted by Khodadad at December 24, 2004 02:55 PM
Comments
Happy belated Yalda, Khodadad! :)
I remember reading somewhere that shrines to Mithra have been found in underground chambers. It seems strange that people would worship the Sun underground. Can you shed any light on this (pardon any unintended pun :))?
We certainly have lots of snow in Indiana right now and lovely sub zero temps, too! I hope you have a pleasant California weekend. :)
Posted by: David at December 24, 2004 10:43 PM
Good post, interesting and captivating as your posts in the 'World History' community. Happy holidays to you as well.
Posted by: P.C. at December 25, 2004 05:12 PM
Hi Khodadad,
You probably know that the Hindu hold the Sun in high esteem as One of the Gods.
Many Hindu Gods have multiple names.
The Sun or the "Soorya" has 12 names such Bhaskara, Dinamani etc.
One of the Names is "Mitra"
These 12 names are recited for atleast last 2000 years by large number of Hindus.
Mitra in Sanskrit means Friend or Best Friend too.
Cheers
Vinayak
Posted by: Vinayak Vaidya at December 27, 2004 05:05 AM
Hi khodadad,
Season's greetings to you. This must've been by far the most interesting and user friendly version of the history of Yalda I've read.
Posted by: jamak at December 29, 2004 07:45 AM