A Consideration of Zoroastrian Customs and Ceremonies in Iran

Subject Areas : Christianity

فرزانه گشتاسب ¹ (ندارد)

Received: 2013-02-26 Accepted : 2013-04-24 Published : 2012-09-22

Keywords: Ancient Iranian customs, ceremonies and rituals, Sofreh, Charities, Gāhānbār,

Abstract :

Some customs of present Iranians, like Norouz ceremony and Haft-sin,Chaharshanbe-suri, the customs of Arafe/Alafe on the last night of theyear, Yalda and some other ceremonies, has been retained from theancient Iran. Zoroastrians of Iran have preserved these ancient customsmore than other groups, so the consideration and deliberation ofZoroastrian ceremonies will help us to analyze the Iranian ceremoniesas a whole. However, the contemporary Zoroastrian rituals, in somerespects, differ from the rituals and customs mentioned in middlePersian texts. Moreover, these rituals are not the same in all Zoroastrianregions of Iran (i.e., Kerman, Yazd and etc). In this paper, the commoncustoms of present Zoroastrians and the important elements of theirrituals are studied, so we can survey the development of their customsand make a comparison between them.