In this article, I am trying to demonstrate the connection between the Iranian celebration of Yalda to the celebration of Christmas.
Several thousand years ago, when Iranians and Indians still lived together, they venerated a common god by the name of Mithra. The night of his birthday was the winter solstice which later on after the advent of the Christian calendar was considered the 25th of December. It is also named the night of Yalda.
Yalda is an Asyrian word which means birth, so the night was called Yalda; the birth of Mithra, the god of sun, love, and contracts.
The Yalda night is the darkest and longest night of the year. But the optimistic point is that beginning the next day, the sun stays a second more in the sky and the days become longer. So Iranians consider this as a triumph of light over darkness, the day over the night and good over evil. They celebrate this night by the family getting together, reciting poetry, playing music, and having fruits and mixed nuts until dawn.
How did the idea travel to the west?
It is well known that between 500 BCE until 500 CE, there were a few super powers in the world: The Persian, Greek and later Roman empires. Persian empires contained a vast territory from Africa in the West to India in the East. These super powers had conflicts of interest and subsequently, they started a series of wars are known as the Greco-Persian wars (499-448 BCE) and Roman-Persian wars (92 BC - 627 AD).
The highlight of these wars is the conquest of Iran by Alexander of Macedonia in 332BCE. After the death of Alexander, his successors lived in Iran for almost 200 years. They got mingled with Iranians and they exchanged culture, arts, architecture, faith and the like. This exact same thing happened with Romans as well. Mostly the Roman soldiers who lived in Iran during the reign of the Parthians (247 BCE – 224 CE) converted to the religion of the host country that was a renewal of Mithraism. And when they moved back to their homeland, they took their new faith with them and promoted it in Rome where Christianity had already been introduced and had followers.
For about 100 to 200 years, Christianity and Mithraism lived parallel to each other in the Roman Empire. Mithraism was the religion of high ranking military and upper class citizens whereas Christianity was the religion of the lay and regular people.
Finally, at the time of Constantine the Great in the year 313 BCE, Christianity got the upper hand and triumphantly was announced the official religion of the Roman Empire. But, the other faith could not be erased over night. Therefore, the heads of the churches decided to adopt some of the elements of the previously rivaled faith into the new official religion. And they did it successfully. Some of those elements are:
Selecting Sunday as a holy day. (There is no reference to Christ as the symbol of the sun.)
There is an amazing similarity between Mithra’s hat and the Pope’s. The name of the pope’s hat is even “Mitre.”
And last but not least, according to professor John Barton of the University of Oxford, there is no scientific proof that Jesus was born on December 25th. Also, there is no document that shows the day or even the month of his birth. Considering his birth in the last days of December that are the longest and the darkest nights of winter, he again stated that most probably, it was adopted from the traditions before Christianity or even from Paganism.
Happy Yalda, Merry Christmas!
Mahvash Shahegh
Lighness over darkness. Light symbolize the happiness and dark symbolize the sadness. The logic follows: "angels must be white" and "devil must be black".
Almost all Abrahamic religions perceived darkness as evil or omen and lightness as "Purity" and "chastity". From Juddism to Islam all promotes the same idea and now we read it in here that "Mithraism" is joining the club.
That concept perpetuated throughout centuries. Nowadays, that concept is a foundation of racism in western society. In that, lighter skin color people get a better job and have a higher position in western societies, and dark skin color people getting lower pay jobs.
European Colonization used the same mentality toward third world countires and specifically among african nations in 18 centuries. Europe took over Africa and promoted the idea that they were superior people to indigenous people because they had lighter skin color.
When we see Derek Chauvin with white skin color sitting on death body of George Floyd who had a black skin color for over 9 minutes, unconsciouly, it reminds us the day after yalda that light power subdue the darkness and we supposed to celebrate such an inhuman act and inhuman idea.
It seems we have to over look at these holidays once again in our modern time, and we might reveiw it for better society.
Sincerely,
MERRY CHRISTMAS
European colonizations utilized the notion of "lightness superiority over darkness" in their benefits to justify their present in Africa, as if God sent the white angels to defeat black devils. Even at present time, there are so many families in Southern States, such as Alabama, Mississippi...... , who truely believe blacks are devils and killing them is imperative and is part of their religion. iThe idea crytalized in a smalll booklet which they refer to it as "Bible of Ku-Klux Klan". Some families go further and they believe some European countries such as Spain who has darker skin are omen or bad luck because they mixed with Africans. That's why they have darker skin color. They believe, those people have devil blood in them. Southern Europeans mixed with Moors during Crusade.
Just recently, in Victoria secret fashion shows, Cat Walk Models appear on stage with black wings. The message is clear. Angels could be black, not necessary white. Aside from commercial benefits, the show is an attempt for racial equality and social justice.
Unlike Abrahamic religions, Eastern Philosophy and religions such as Taoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism don't have the concept of darkness versus lightness. Eastern religions emphasis on "Good Karma" and "Bad Karma". For that reason during Japanese empire or their occupation of China, Philipean, Korea.... and even in the recent years massacre in Rohingya, we don't see any indication of yellow color superiority over other colors.
Cheers,
S.