Mehregan Festival 2018 Orange County

Mehregan Festival 2018 Orange County – 16th October NIPOC, 2082 Business Center Drive, Suite 258, Irvine, CA 92612

Mehregan Festival 2018 Orange County

For any inquiries Call: 949-851-3993
Email: mehregan@nipoc.org

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Mehregan Festival 2018 Orange County

For this celebration, the participants wear new clothes and set a decorative, colorful table. The sides of the tablecloth are decorated with dry marjoram. A copy of the Khordeh Avesta (“little Avesta”), a mirror and a sormeh-dan (a traditional eyeliner or kohl) are placed on the table together with rosewater, sweets, flowers, vegetables and fruits, especially pomegranates and apples, and nuts such as almonds or pistachios. A few silver coins and lotus seeds are placed in a dish of water scented with marjoram extract. A burner is also part of the table setting for Kondor/Loban (frankincense) and espand (seeds of Peganum harmala, Syrian rue) to be thrown on the flames. At lunchtime when the ceremony begins, everyone in the family stands in front of the mirror to pray. Sharbat is drunk and then—as a good omen—sormeh is applied around the eyes. Handfuls of wild marjoram, lotus, and sugar plum seeds are thrown over one another’s heads while they embrace one another. In the 1960s the Postal Service in Tehran issued a series of stamps to commemorate Mehrgan Festival.

As noted above, Mehrgān is a name-day feast. These name-day feasts are festivals celebrated on the day of the year when the day-name and month-name dedicated to a particular angle or virtue intersect. Indeed, the Zoroastrian Persians before Islam had 30-days months, which means that each day in a month had a different name, with 12 of the days also being names of the 12 months. The day whose name corresponded to the name of the month was celebrated. It was a celebration of life, seasons changing, God, and joy. In Zoroastrianism, happiness is very important and is considered as a holy virtue that must be attracted. Thus, this religion has always had many feasts and celebrations.

Mehregan Festival 2018 Orange County

What that day corresponds to in another calendar is subject to which variant of the Zoroastrian calendar is followed:

• The Fasili and Bastani variants of the religious calendar adhere to Gregorian intercalation (leap-day) rules, and therefore Mehregān is celebrated on a day that is fixed in relation to the Gregorian calendar. Mehrgān is then always on October 8.
• The Shahanshah and Kadmi variants of the religious calendar do not intercalate at all, with the result that over the last 14 centuries, Mehrgān has fallen behind and is now either 7th (Shahenshahi) or 8th (Kadmi) months before the same date in the Fasili and Bastani variants.

The Bastani calendar is used primarily in Greater Iran and by Persians of the diaspora, while Zoroastrians of India (subject to calendrical faction) use one of the other three variants.

Non-Zoroastrian Iranians do not observe any variant of the Zoroastrian calendar but instead, use Iranian calendars. When introduced in 1925, the Zoroastrian festival days were pegged to the Bastani variant of the Zoroastrian calendar. The first six months of the civil calendar had 31 days each, while all Zoroastrian calendar months have 30 days each. So by the 7th month (Mehr), there is a difference of 6 days between the two. Thus, October 8, which in the Bastani/Fasili calendar is the 16th day of Mehr month, is in the Persian civil calendar the 10th day (Aban) of the same month.

The relationship between Mehregān and the various calendars is perhaps better understood relative to Nowruz. When (relative to another calendar) the first day of the year occurs is subject to interpretation, but independent of when it occurs, Mehregān is celebrated 195 days after that, that is on the 196th day of thyear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehregan