Zoroastrians Celebrate Amid Fears for Religion’s Future

About 500 people of Persian descent sang, exchanged hugs and prayed Sunday evening at the California Zoroastrian Center’s celebration of two of the most important events in their ancient religion.

Nouruz, the Persian New Year, took place during Wednesday’s vernal equinox. And the 3,764th anniversary of the birth of Zarathustra, prophet to the religion, occurs today.

From throughout Southern California, Zoroastrians gathered at the center to be spiritually cleansed of last year’s sins through a traditional sermon sung by a Zoroastrian mobed, or priest.

Flickering in front of mobed Bahram Shahazadi as he sang Sunday was a large bonfire--the religion’s symbol of purity. Yet the ancient religion, recognized by scholars as the ancestor of all existing religions, is facing trouble in a modern world.

Though scholars say the faith influenced the canons of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the size of the Zoroastrian community has diminished dramatically over the centuries. Zoroastrianism has seen its numbers fall from millions in about 500 B.C to about 200,000 worldwide today, experts say.

The religion’s edict against conversion has been one of the main modern causes, experts say. There are about 6,000 Zoroastrians in North America and a little more than 700 in Southern California. Most arrived here during the late 1970s, and the community has struggled to maintain its size and identity.

The fact that it is dwindling has forced some leaders to seek change. A tendency for second-generation Zoroastrians to marry outside the religion has stirred a growing debate in the community over whether conversion should be allowed.

Because the religion traditionally does not accept converts, the spouses of Zoroastrians who marry outside the faith are not welcomed at Zoroastrian functions. Children of mixed marriages have the option of joining the religion when they are 21.

As a result, many Zoroastrians who marry outside the religion will leave it, experts say. Most agree that it is a problem that merits reexamination of the religion’s attitude toward conversion.

“It’s always at the back of everyone’s mind,” said Aban Commissariat, president of the Zoroastrian Association of California in Woodland Hills. “But very few people will talk about it publicly. It’s a delicate issue for us.”

For 18-year-old Mehernaz Hamsayeh, the issue is simple. “Older generations just don’t embrace the Western world, so there is this tension between the kids and adults,” she said. There would be trouble in her own family if she dated someone outside the religion, she added.

“They need to accept that we have lives here,” said the Cal State San Diego student.

Rohinton Aresh, who heads Newport Beach’s Traditional Mazdayesni Zoroastrian Association, said elders are attempting to attract young people.

Children are mocked at school, he said, for wearing traditional Zoroastrian undergarments and belts, which leads them to want to blend in with others instead of affirming their identity.

“They need to be made proud of their religion so they won’t want to go outside [it],” he said. Youth education seminars and computer programs have been set up to garner greater interest from young Zoroastrians.

“The paradigms are changing. You have to think the American way to get the young interested here,” said Fariborz Shahzadi, one of the religion’s few priests.