Tonight is the last night of Autumn. We, Iranian celebrate it as the "Yalda Night", the longest night whole the year. Yalda has great significance in the Persian/Iranian calendar.
"Yalda" is a time of joy. We gather around and enjoy a fine dinner. Many varieties of fruits and sweetmeats especially prepared or kept for this night are served. In some areas it is believed that forty varieties of edibles should be served. The most typical is watermelon.
After dinner the older individuals entertain the others by telling them tales and anecdotes . Another favorite and prevalent pastime of the night of Yalda is divination by the poems of Hafez (An Iranian poet).
Yalda is celebrated on or around December 20 or 21 each year.
Comments
Hello Paradise!
Nice wish!
Korsi wish :)
Happy Yalda to you too
Hi dear sahar. Many thx 4 ur nice blog. happy yalda 2 u & ur family. Enjoy it specially if u have KORSI . :-)))))))
Good Sara!
Hapy Yalda to you and all whom you love :)
Nice to see you so!
It is really nice of you, thanks dear :)
Hello Surawan!
Yes, it is really interesting to listen to elders stories!
Thanks for your nice eyes :)
Yes, Yasemin
You are right, Yalda is a girl name and it means "Birth".
It is called "Yalda" because of a story behind it.
Yalda has a history as long as the religion of Mithraism. The Mithraists believed that this night is the night of the birth of Mithra, Persian angel of light and truth. At the morning of the longest night of the year the Mithra was born.
It also means the bitrth of "Light" against "Darkness".
And about watermelon, I must say that yes, we have in south of Iran right now. Last week Iranian took watermelon from the earth in south of Iran and it was also amazing for me to know it.
But Iranian kept watermelon from summer for Yalda in the past!
Yalda without "watermelon" means nothing :)
Thanks for your comment dear Yasemin.
Sahar , it is the enjoyment that after dinner , elders tell tales and anecdotes in Yalda festival .
Beautiful watermelon carving :)
Yalda sounds like a female name. What does it mean? By the way, is there watermelon in your country at this season?
@ Anele
Thanks for your comment, it's great to see you online again :)
Yes, fruits are expensive here, specially these years!
@ Nafis
Thanks, dear :)
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Happy Yalda to you dear Sahar hoping you enjoyed it so much!
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