Saturday, December 20, 2008

Happy The Longest Night of The Year! Happy Yalda!

"Winter Feast: Yalda Night" is an ancient Iranian festival originally celebrated on the Northern Hemisphere's longest night of the year, that is, on the eve of the Winter Solstice. The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer. The Winter Solstice occurs on December 20 or 21 each year.
Yalda is the most important non-new-year Iranian festival that comes back to the 2nd millennium BC. According to Persian mythology, Mitra, the Godess of love, was born at the end of this night after the long-expected defeat of darkness against light. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days. Happy Yalda everybody!

8 comments:

Dina said...

Happy Yalda to you too!

Sarah said...

Happy Yalda to you,Meead.
I will put my Yalda photos for sunday post!

Virginia said...

What a beautiful photo to celebrate !!! well done!

V

Anonymous said...

HAPPY YALDA NIGHT TO YOU
JAT KHALIST EMSHAB INJA

Danial Bigham said...

It's beautiful night because, the all famil congregate in grand mother's home. ,I exam tomorrow the longest night in year and my night be ruined.

Laurie Allee said...

My family always commemorates the solstice with some form of celebration, but I had never heard of Yalda until now. Happy Yalda to you, too! What a great photo to accompany this post.

Ann said...

Happy Yalda. I'd forgotten it was solstice. Now your days grow longer and mine grow shorter.

USelaine said...

Happy Yalda to you and your family! It's fun to learn about an observance that is so specifically Persian. And I love the reflections on the water - great shot!