Our dear friend Meher Amalsad sent us this beautiful write up of the Jashne Sadeh in Los Angeles, California
Meher Amalsad writes …
On February 18, 2018, under the esteemed guidance of our religious class teachers Houtoxi F. Contractor, Shazneen Gandhi, Gulshan Pagdiwalla and Ervad Zarrir Bhandara, for the first time a historic event was organized by the Zoroastrian Association Of California (ZAC) when the children’s Religious Class celebrated the spirit of Jashne Sadeh with fervor and gusto.
Sadeh is our ancient Persian Festival of the discovery of fire at the dawn of human civilization. It dates back to the first Persian Empire – Achaemenid Empire.
It celebrates 50-days before NouRouz. Sadeh in Persian means “hundred” and refers to one hundred days and nights past the end of summer or the beginning of long winter known to start at the end of summer in ancient Iran.
It is a mid-winter festival that was celebrated with grandeur and magnificence in ancient Persia. It signifies a festivity to honor fire and to defeat the forces of darkness, frost and cold.
The prime purpose of this historic celebration was to ignite a spark of an enlightened inner fire in the heart and spirit of our future generation.
With that purpose in mind, this historic celebration started around 3 pm, where the children were explained the significance of this festival by Ervad Zarrir Bhandara in a joyful, congenial and hands-on interactive learning environment at the ZAC Center in Orange, California.
This was then followed by a delightful Persian dinner for the children, their parents and grandparents.
After dinner, the children and their teachers, parents, and grandparents paraded joyfully with candles in their hands singing “Let there be Light”.
Thereafter, the big fire was lit by the priests then together they all recited the Atash Niyaesh holding hands around the fire and sharing their inner warmth with each other.
This celebration was concluded by children making s’mores on the fire with a joyful smile on their face.
This event served as an edutainment (education with entertainment) for our future generation.We look forward to similar heartwarming enrichment programs in the future under the dedicated guidance of the religious class teachers and the support of the ZAC Executive.