Parsi Khabar

When life in a Parsi household was lived at a leisurely pace…
By Silloo Mehta
Indian cities were beautiful a century ago. Bungalows had gardens, leafy parks were well maintained and flowering trees arboured the streets. There was an air of space, tranquillity and wellbeing. We were a joint middle class family, Grandpa the benign patriarch. [...]

By Rusi Sorabjee
One of the daily ritual in a Parsi/Irani homes in India of the early 20th Century, that brings back happy memories of our childhood, of a bygone era, when the days had morehours, families had more members, dinning tables had more chairs, we were more religious and the community felt like being a [...]

Ervad Marzban J.  Hathiram, a good old friend, editor of Frashogard.com and the Panthaki at the Jogeshwari Daremehr has written a hard hitting post on religious adultery.
Marzban writes
My apologies for not updating the blog for the last few weeks since I was tied up in the Muktad preparations and prayers in our Daremeher at [...]

The following is from a series titled "What is Prayers" on Frashogard.com written by our godo friend Ervad Marzban Hathiram,
Of the many gifts given to Parsis by their Prophet Zarathushtra, that of the Manthras is one of the most significant. Manthras are the divine words of the Prophet and His appointed disciples which form what [...]

By Naomi Canton for the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, April 26
VOLUNTEER TEACHER Sethari Irani (26) asked a group of 20 Parsi children why bad things happened to good people.
"Because Ahriman (the god of evil) doesn’t like them.” replied one of the children.
"No." she said. "He is brainless. He attacks people randomly, same as the 26/11 terrorists."
This [...]

By Ervad Marzban Hathiram

We live in tumultuous times. Our miseries seem never-ending. Calamities, both natural and human-made, visit us with uncanny regularity. Faced with these misfortunes, some of us feel betrayed by God. Does He not see the pain we are going through? Why does He allow so much evil to flourish on this [...]

By Ervad (Dr.) Hoshang J. Bhadha
The following funeral procedure for shipping the mortal remains to India is prepared for the Zoroastrian community in the United States. The given procedure and ceremonies are applicable only to those who belong to the Zoroastrian fold (both parents are Zoroastrians and practicing the Zoroastrian religion); who has not [...]

By Firoza Punthakey-Mistree courtesy of Zoroastrian Studies.
On Adar Ruz, Adar Mah, the Parsis of India celebrate the feast of Fire known as the Atash nu parab.  This feast is celebrated largely by the women in the family, who prepare the hearth fire for this festival by cleaning the kitchen and making purchases for the festival.  [...]

Nowruz Festival is a traditional holiday with a long history. In Xinjiang, all national minority believe in Islam celebrate the festival. The word came from Iranian, means “Spring Water“, equating to vernal equinox (4th solar term). It falls on March 22.
Before Uyghur national minority believed in Islamism, they worshiped many gods such as sun [...]

Women display Parsi wear at the exhibition on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad
Jamshedpur, Sept. 19: After wearing saris of Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra and south India to your relatives’ weddings, if you want something unique then head for the Parsi Association Hall at Sakchi.
Mumbai-based Parsi community is organising a two-day exhibition in [...]

           Sudra is a special shirt of nine seams worn just next to the skin made of cotton and white in colour and prepared from one whole piece of cloth. On such a Sudra round the waist is girded a kusti.
           The Mazdiyasnis before the advent of Zarthustra, used to put on sudra and kusti. [...]

Parsi Lagan or Wedding is marked by vibrant and joyful customs that spread over a couple of days. Unique and interesting rituals begin from the time of engagement and culminate with a lavish post wedding reception where one gets to enjoy the rich Parsi culture in the form of good music, wine and dining.
Pre-Wedding Rituals:
A [...]

You have to feel sorry for vultures. For animal campaigners they are a difficult case. Other, more photogenic, slightly less sinister creatures may gain the world’s sympathy at the drop of a hat, but raising money to save the world’s most proficient scavenger is a different matter.

As far as the Asian vulture is concerned, however, [...]

The route from Churchgate to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is sprinkled with memorials to sentinels of Mumbai history. Only, nobody cares
Sipping my masala chai one morning, I suddenly realized that the Khada Parsi statue, literally the Standing Parsi standing not far from where I live, had a name: Shet Cursetjee Manockjee, whose statue had been erected [...]

Iran’s Zoroastrian minorities gathered at their temples across Iran on Wednesday to mark Sadeh _ an ancient feast celebrating the creation of fire that has been observed since the days when their religion was the overwhelming belief in the powerful Persian empire.
In Cham, a small mountainous village outside Yazd in central Iran, hundreds of Zoroastrians [...]