What is Yalda night
Yalda means birth. Yalda night is a beautiful ancient Iranian celebration. Iranians are celebrating the longest and darkest night of the year or winter solstice. This night is on 20 to 21 December according to the Georgian calendar. I should add here that we in Iran use a different calendar, the Iranian calendar. According to this calender, Yalda night is the last evening of the autumn day or “the night opening the initial forty-day period of the three-month winter”.
This celebration is coming from the time when a majority of Persians were followers of Zoroastrianism prior to the advent of Islam. Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were dominant on the longest night of the year and that the next day belonged to the Lord of Wisdom, Ahura Mazda.
This night has been used in many Iranian poems to describe a dark night in which one gets separated from a loved one, creating loneliness and waiting. Other countries such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan are also celebrating this night.