SAEDNEWS: As people all over the world celebrate the holidays, the Iranian community observes Yalda, a Persian celebration of the winter solstice.
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SAEDNEWS: Shab-e-Yalda (Yalda Night), also known as Shab-e Chelleh, is one of the most ancient Persian festivals annually celebrated on December 21 by Iranians all around the world.
Yalda is a winter solstice celebration; it marks the end of autumn and the lengthiest night of the year. Since days get longer and nights shorter in winter, Iranians celebrate the last night of autumn as the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness. On Shab-e-Yalda, people gather in groups of friends or families, usually at the home of grandparents or the elderly, to pass the longest night of the year happily by eating nuts and fruits, reading Hafiz poems, making good wishes, talking and laughing all together to give a warm welcome to winter, and a felicitous farewell to autumn.
Yalda means “birth”, and Yalda night refers to the longest night of the year or winter solstice. Ancient Iranians believed that this night coincides with the birth of Mitra or Mehr, the mythological goddess of light in ancient Persia. Yalda or Chella was inscribed in 2022 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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