Ancient Religion to Mark Winter Solstice : Zoroastrians: Merry Yalda

‘Tis the season to be jolly: Christmas, Hanukkah, Yalda.

Yalda?

Tonight, at the California Zoroastrian Center in Westminster, members of one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions will demonstrate that the festivities of this season are not limited to Christians and Jews.

Yalda is a non-religious festival marking the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, the same celestial phenomenon favored by early pagans and Christians alike for winter holidays, including Christmas.

Dr. Ardeshir Anoshiravani, president of the executive committee for the 500-member center, said Yalda actually predates the founding of Zoroastrianism in Persia, now Iran, more than 3,500 years ago. Yalda means “long” in Persian.

Yalda is one of more than 40 festivals celebrated annually by Zoroastrians, and it is by no means the most important, Anoshiravani said. Tonight’s scheduled entertainment includes a long night of Persian songs and poetry, skits by the center’s young people and traditional festival foods, including watermelon and nuts.

The 8,500-square-foot Zoroastrian Center, which draws members from Ventura to San Diego, opened in March, replacing a smaller facility in Anaheim. The structure, designed and built by area Zoroastrians, is called Dar-e-Mehr, or “Door to Love.” Above the entrance are the words, in English, that embody the faith’s essence: “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.”

The $800,000 facility includes a prayer room, meeting hall, library, three classrooms, offices and living quarters for visiting scholars.

The religion is based on the teachings of Zarathustra Haechataspa Spitama, a 2nd Century BC prophet. Zarathustra inspired the 19th-Century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to write the essay, “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” which, in turn, was used by the composer Richard Strauss as the basis for his symphonic poem, “Also Spake Zarathustra,” best known today as the theme for the film “2001.”

Anoshiravani, 43, is a Huntington Beach psychiatrist who came to this country from Iran in 1970. He said there are fewer than 1,500 Zoroastrians in Southern California, a fraction of the 125,000-member worldwide community that includes 3,000 followers in the United States, 30,000 in Iran and 80,000 in India. The Indian Zoroastrians, known as Parsis, fled Iran in AD 652 following the wave of Islamic conquest, he said.

Since the fall of the shah of Iran and the founding of the fundamentalist Islamic republic, more Zoroastrians have immigrated to the United States, but Anoshiravani said “there is no indication of systematic discrimination of Zoroastrians now going on in Iran.”

Because so little is known about the religion, the California center sent out a message to residents and churches in the area. Titled “Know Thy Neighbor, Love Thy Neighbor,” the four-page letter explains the history of the faith and the significance of some of the symbols on the center’s facade, which include a winged figure and large bull heads.

“The building facade simply signifies the glorious days of our past,” the letter concludes, “when we led the multinational, multi-religious part of the civilized world with benevolence and tolerance, just as we find it in America today. Once it was we who, as the ‘superpower’ of the times, promoted true freedom of thought, speech, and action. Now, reduced to a microscopic minority, we want to enjoy the same freedom.”

One area of particular misunderstanding, Anoshiravani said, was the presence on the altar of a large vase containing a perpetual fire. “The fire symbolizes warmth, strength and permanence,” he said, and is not an object of worship. Anoshiravani compared it to the “everlasting light” kept in synagogues and candles lit in some churches.

Throughout its long history, Zoroastrianism has a reputation for promoting cooperation among various religions. Some Christians believe that the Three Wise Men who came bearing gifts for the infant Jesus may have been Zoroastrian priests.

In Zoroastrianism, Anoshiravani said, “regular worship is not as important as in some other religions,” although the center in Westminster has regular Sunday services as well as gatherings for festivals. There is no full-time clergyman, but a trained church member from La Jolla reads in Persian from the Avasta, the body of Zoroastrian literature, and at various points the congregants rise, join hands and read. Men and women sit together and have equal status.

Anoshiravani said God “is not seen as a punishing agent” but “as a creator who has set down the truth of the quintessence of life . . . the more we understand, the closer we come to immortality.” The religion provides its believers with “a brain and a map” to get through life. “If they choose a bad freeway, it’s their problem,” he said.

Yalda is a minor festival, Anoshiravani said, and no gifts are given. But it is a happy occasion, and “happiness and festive celebrations are very important in our religion . . . happiness is considered a source of good.”

In the words of Zarathustra: “Happiness is the lot of those who work for others’ happiness.”

As for the social and commercial pressures of Christmas, Anoshiravani’s wife, Shida, a pharmaceutical chemist and secretary of the congregation, said they do not pose a problem--even for Zoroastrian children.

“They know this is not our religion,” she said.