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It is yalda time!

“The true morning will not come, until the Yalda Night is gone," the great 13th century Persian poet Sa'di writes.

While Christians around the world get ready to celebrate Christmas on the eve of December 25th, Iranians hold another festival on the eve of December 21st . Shab-e Yalda or Shab-e Cheleh is the name of this celebration. Yalda is an Iranian festival originally celebrated on the northern hemisphere's longest night of the year, that is, on the eve of the Winter Solstice. Like other major Persian celebrations, it is focused on the changing of the seasons. It is forty days before another major Iranian festival, Jashn-e Sadeh.

Yalda is a Syriac word imported into the Persian language by the Syriac Christians meaning birth. It is as old as Mithraism and it is said that Mithra, the Persian god of light and truth, was born on this night.

Among the Persian and many other ancient cultures, light, day and the sun were signs of god while night and darkness represented evil. People believed that light and darkness were in constant conflict. Longer days are the days of light and god's triumph and longer nights are signs of evil's victory. Yalda, the last night of autumn and the longest night of the year, finishes with light's victory at dawn with Mithra's birth. It is a turning point of the year and in the coming months, the days will grow longer and the nights will be shorted.