Sepandārmazgān is the celebration day of love and earth in ancient Persian culture. It is celebrated the 29th of Bahman in Iranian calendar. Modern folklore dates the celebration to ancient times and Zoroastrian tradition. Sepandarmazgan is the celebration day of Love, Friendship and Earth in ancient Persian culture.
According to Iranian tradition, the day of Sepandarmazgan was held in the Great Persian Empire in the 20th century BC. That is the national title of the Earth and the Earth is the symbol of love & modesty. Persians have a rich culture with many great feasts based on natural occasions that have been mixed up with happiness and Joy. In the feast of Sepandarmazgan, the Earth was worshiped and women venerated. On this day, women and girls sat on the throne and men and boys had to obey them and bring to them presents and gifts. In this way, men were reminded to acclaim and respect women. Sepandarmaz is another name for mainyu (earth) meaning Holy, Humble and Passionate. Sepandarmaz is also Earth Guardian Angel. It is the symbol of humbleness. It means modest toward the entire creation. These are the qualities attributed to Earth that spreads beneath our feet, thus the symbol of modesty and love. As human beings, there are creatures that we find unpleasant and repulsive, but Earth is not like us. She embraces all creatures the same and loves them the same; like a mother who loves all children alike, even when they are ugly. In ancient Persian culture, mother is symbolized by Sepandarmaz or earth.
The original date for this ceremony was Esfand 5th, which corresponds to 24 February in the Gregorian calendar. The popular revised date of Bahman 29th (18 February), is due to the disorganized calendaring during the past 20 years. Thousands of Iranians observe the celebration day every year.
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Dear Sahar,
I would like to know whether this day, 29th Bahman, is a government holiday in Iran at present.You wrote that the Earth was worshipped.......do the Iranians still worship the Earth? You seem to be in high praise for this day, why?
Thanks
Munir
Oh!! No Munir! We don’t worship the Earth as you are thinking even in the past!**
And also this celebration isn’t in our calendar, now. In fact it is forgotten.
Some years ago when I heard about Valentine I started to search for it in the Internet, but I understand that Iranian have love’s day ourselves too. Unfortunately, none of my friends know about it, although they are celebrating Valentine every year as a love’s day. Having a day for love and friendship and celebrating it is very good, But it isn’t fairly that we forget such a rich culture that we have.
Your question makes me so happy. Thank you so much for your nice attention.
**In ancient Iran each day of the month had a name, and all months had 30 days. For example, the first day was called Ahuramazda, the second day Bahman, which is the first attribute of God, the third day was called Ordibehesht meaning truth and purity which again are attributes of God. The fourth day is called Shahrivar, meaning ideal kingship that belongs to God who rules the whole universe. The cryptic meaning of this word is that in the same way that God rules over the heavenly bodies, we should rule our bodies with good thoughts, words and deeds. This brings us to the fifth day Sepandarmaz. Another rule here was that whenever the name of a day coincided with that of the month, a feast was held. So the feast of Sepandarmazgan is held on the sepandarmaz day of the month of Esfand (former Spand or Espand). Similarly, the 16th day of any month is called Mehr and the feast of Mehrgan is held on the 16th day of the month of Mehr which was one of the most important feasts of the past. The day of Aban in the month of Aban is the day of another feast called Abangan, and was used as an occasion to appreciate and worship water and the day of Azar in the month of Azar, called Azargan was the feast of appreciation of fire and so forth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandarmazgan
That’s very kind of you.
What we (everybody) have at the present has come from our (his) past.
But what I wrote about Iran was only because of your question about worshiping the Earth.
I do not think so. The past may not be good.What we are at present depends upon the way of life we lead now.
Yes. I agree with you completely. We have many people who hadn’t good past but their life was changed only by an event.
Even our today isn’t like tomorrow. Many things have influence in our life.
But our family, our culture, our country has effect on our life in the other way. What we decide to be now is the collection of our possession that we have earned in the past.
Yes of course Islam gave us many things.
But what is Islam?
It isn’t only a name for one of God’s religion. In fact it is the name of all of God’s religion that had been completed by the last prophet. Iranian always worshiped the God.
What is the reason that a person accepts right ways even if he has a great life himself?
Both of the right way’s methods and the sight of that person is need here.
Finding and accepting the right ways can’t be by accident.
Good.
You are wise people.
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