Tag Archives: Parsis

Festivals of India: Parsi New Year

Posted on by
Reply
Source

Yesterday was Navroze which marked the beginning of the Persian calendar, and which in India, the Parsis celebrated as their new year! Navroz which comes from the combination of two words – ‘nav’, meaning new and ‘roz’, which means day means a new day. Cries of Navroz Mubarak and Saal Mubarak must have echoed across agriaries or fire temples across the country. This tradition began more than 3000 years ago, and is also known as Jamshed-i-Nouroz after the Persian King, Jamshed, who introduced the Parsi calendar. Legend has it that Jamshed saved the world from an apocalypse, a winter that was destined to kill everyone; by using a throne studded with gems and rising to the heavens on the shoulders of demons he shone brighter than the sun and gave birth to a new day, Navroz.

Navroze marks a new beginning and is celebrated with much fervour. The eve before Navroz is also known as Pateti, when Parsis rigorously go into cleaning mode externally too and get rid of all their unwanted belongings and possessions, in the hopes of cleansing themselves. People clean and decorate their homes, dress up in traditional attires, and visit fire temples to pray for prosperity and seek forgiveness for their sins.

I have written about the Parsis and Navroz also previously, so hop there to read more on some legends about this wonderful community!

Source

The Parsis follow the religion of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest known monotheistic religions. It was founded by the Prophet Zarathustra in ancient Iran approximately 3,500 years ago. One of the ancient world’s most important religions for over 1000 years, it was the official religion of ancient Persia from 650 BCE until the rise of Islam in the 7th century. When the Islamic armies invaded Persia, many Zoroastrians migrated, and a many of them landed in Gujarat in India. Today, there are an estimated 2.6 million Zoroastrians worldwide, with the Parsis in India being the largest single group.

In Iran and other parts of the Middle East, Zoroastrians celebrated the Persian New Year using the Fasli/Bastnai calendar, which fixed the first day of the year on the Spring Equinox, usually March 21st. To this day, this remains a popular festival, known as Nowruz, celebrated by many peoples and cultures in the region, despite not being Zoroastrians. The Parsis however, observe the new year using the Shahenshahi calendar which does not account for leap years, meaning this holiday has now moved by 200 days from its original day of the vernal equinox.

Source

Growing up and studying in a Parsi school means that we had friends and classmates who celebrated this festival. Another unique feature of Parsi schools is that we used to get something called Gatha holidays. This used to a weeklong holiday just before the Parsi New Year. In our larger area, it was usually just our school and an another Parsi school nearby which had this holiday and I remember other friends who didn’t have this holiday being very jealous of us. Of course, this didn’t mean we got more holidays than others. We used to pay back the five days we got as holidays by having our Christmas holidays much later than the mission schools and also a few days before the Diwali holidays and the summer holidays. Other schools had a week-long break for other festivals which we didn’t have, so school holidays generally adjusted themselves.

The Gatha days are the five intercalary or timekeeping days which span the last month of the year and the first month of the new year. The Frawardigan, also known as Hamaspathmaidyem Gahambar, mukhtad or panji is a 10-day period during which the souls of the dead or the fravashi are commemorated. The ten days of Frawardigan span the last five days of the last month of the year, plus the five intercalary or Gatha days between the last month of the year and first month of the next year. Among Indian Zoroastrians, an extended mukhtad of eighteen days is also observed and this is the holiday we used to get. I also remember calling the Parsi New Year as Pateti, which I understand means a day of penitence which comes from the patet meaning confession. This is actually a day of introspection, and originally occurred on the last day, or on the last 5 days of the calendar year. For reasons related to single day occasions being observed over six days, Pateti came to fall on the first day of the New Year’s Day celebrations, and in India which folloed the Shahenshahi calendar, Pateti came to be celebrated on New Year’s Day itself. Although the name has been retained, Pateti is no longer a day of introspection.

To all those who celebrate the Parsi New Year, here’s wishing you Saal Mubarak and Navroze Mubarak!

Navroze Mubarak

Posted on by
1

Saal Mubarak! With these words, Parsis across the world would have greeted each other tomorrow as they heralded the arrival of their new year. Another greeting heard across the agiaries (Fire Temples) would have been Navroze Mubarak!

I studied for 12 years in a Parsi school and so this community holds a special place in my heart. This small, minority community comprises of the followers of Zarathustra. The Parsis in India are those who fled Persia (modern day Iran) due to religious persecution and arrived in western India (modern day Gujarat, Kutch in India and Sindh in Pakistan).

There’s a very sweet story that was told to me in school about the Parsis’ arrival in India. When they arrived in Gujarat, the leader of the Parsis, the head priest or Dastoorji, sent a messanger to the local king asking for his permission to stay in his land as refugees. The king sent back a bowl full of milk. The Dastoorji looked at the bowl of milk his messenger brought back, added a spoon of sugar to it and sent it back to the king. The King understood the message and gave them permission. Soon one of the people in the Parsi group asked the Dastoorji what just happened and he replied that the bowl of milk the king sent over indicated that the land was currently occupied and full and he didn’t want to do anything to disrupt the lives of his people. By mixing sugar in the milk, the Priest sent a message that the Parsis will do nothing to disrupt the land and it’s people and instead, like how sugar adds sweetness to the milk, they will assimilate into the land and only add to the sweetness of this land and not take away anything. And this is how the Parsis adapted the Gujarati way of life – in their language or dialect as well as the dress. Parsis speak a dialect of Gujarati, which we call Parsi Gujarati and women also adopted the saree as their main form of dress.

The more recent arrivals of Parsis, those who arrived in late 19th and early 20th centuries, fleeing from the repressions of the Qajar dynasty in Iran are differentiated from the original Parsi settlers and are called Iranis. This Irani community is smaller than the Parsi community, though both profess the same religion, but religious customs may be slightly different.

In the centuries that they have lived in India, the Parsis, have integrated themselves into the Indian society, while at the same time, maintaining their ethnic individuality.

This community has been faced with dwindling numbers for a while now, the most significant being childlessness or having less than two numbers (which is basically the total fertility rate) or migration. Demographic trends project that by the year 2020 the Parsis will number only 23,000 (less than 0.002% of the 2001 population of India). The Parsis will then cease to be called a community and will be labeled a ‘tribe’.

During the British rule of India, because this community was highly literate and extremely fluent in English, they occupied many important places in the East India Company.

One interesting aspect of the Parsis is that instead of burying or cremating their dead, they place their dead in a Tower of Death where vultures peck the body and pick it clean. Once the bones are bleached by the sun, they are pushed into the circular opening in the tower. They believe, this way is the most ecological way, where even the dead are used as food by vultures and no part of the polluted human body is pushed back into the earth (by burying it) or into the atmosphere (by cremating it).

The Parsi place pf worship is called an Agiary in the Parsi dialect or a Fire Temple in English. The most holy place for Parsis in India is a place called Udwada in Gujarat. Legend says that one of the groups of refugees brought with them the ash of one of sacred fires from Iran and this ash serves, even today, as the bed for the fire in the Udwada Agiary. I remember friends from school going to the Agiary which used to be opposite our school before important exams. Unfortunately, as a non-Parsi I can’t enter the Agiary.

The Parsis have made considerable contributions to the history and development of India, all the more remarkable considering their small numbers. As the maxim “Parsi, thy name is charity” reveals, their greatest contribution, literally and figuratively, is their philanthropy.