Dear Helen, Martin and others
dorood
The attached file consisted of photos of Pnajeh ceremony, in my own family in Kerman. The moobedyAr with white cloths is me. The table is called haft sin by other Iranians and is called the Sofreh-ye jashn in Zoroastrian ceremony.
The seven article in our table cloth is not seven things with names starting with s.
There are 7 symbols, showing the 7 adjectives that a human being should improve inside him/her to reach best life. 1- Egg and milk = bahman= good mind. 2- fire= ardibehesht= the best law/ the law of universe 3- metal, especially silver coin,=shahrivar= the desirable kingdom (to be king rulling over ourself) 4- natural flat rock= esfand= the serenity that is the result of knowledge (science), love and faith 5- pure water= khordAd= perfectness, wholeness, completeness 6- green plant and foods made of plants= amordAd= immortality and the final aim of human being = 7- mirror= spenta minoo or ahhorA mazdA= improving mind or creative mind (God).
Nik-o shAd bAshid
KhodA negahdAr,
MoobedyAr MehrAn Gheibi.
Kerman_Iran
--- On Wed, 2/11/09, Helen Gerth <shan...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Helen Gerth <shan...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [zoroastrianacceptance2] Gahanbars
To: zoroastrian...@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 4:02 PM
Martin,
I almost forgot...... Roy Rappaport published a book, Ritual and Religon in the Making of Humanity which is a wonderful discussion of ritual and religion.... it is very dense....but I loved the ways it challenged me to look at ritual and how religion connects individuals, the processes it uses at establishing a sense of things as having always been the way they are yet a flexible, evolving community that can and does adapt perspectives to fit the present needs of the community.
Ushta te
Helen
--- On Tue, 2/10/09, Martin Williams-Di Maggio <hashnbash@yahoo. co.uk> wrote:
From: Martin Williams-Di Maggio <hashnbash@yahoo. co.uk>
Subject: [zoroastrianaccepta nce2] Gahanbars
To: zoroastrianacceptan ce2@yahoogroups. com
Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2009, 6:14 PM
Ushta-te Helen
The thought behing my asking about alternatives is that I tend towards
a way of celebrating my beliefs that is in keeping with my own ethnic
heritage rather than adopting the celebrations of a different ethnic
group, whilst I greatly value and respect those traditions I prefer a
more familiar celebration for myself.
In my home we celebrate the Spring Equinox and value it as the natural
new year celebration, for this we have adopted some Norooz traditions
such as laying a "sofreh." Sofrehs are used in Albania and were
adopted by the Albanians during the Turkish occupation of Albania
(which lasted 500 years), my grandfather was Albanian and I grew up
with a few Albanian traditions in my immediate family, so for me
setting up a sofreh is kind of natural. Our sofreh is decorated with 2
candles, the significance of which is masculine and feminine qualities
of divinity, a mirror which
reflects our destiny, a bowl of water
representing (wuite obviously) the element of water, in which are two
goldfish celebrating life. There are also a bunch of daffodils on the
sofreh which represent the element of earth and also the spring
season, daffodils are native to England where I live. There is burning
oils and insence representing the element of air and a central larger
candle that represents the element fire and is of course central to
Mazdayasna.
Apart from Spring Equinox we celebrate Midwinter on December 25th
taking advantage of all the christmas traditions which are not
outright Christian. I am yet to really start celebrating Mehergan
which I believe is the Autumn Equinox celebration, although one year
we did have a meal in which we invited friends and all sat around a
decorated Sofreh.
We haven't introduced reading poems or Gathas so I would appreciate
your thoughts on
this.
Ushta
Martin
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