Yule celebration

[CelticForest]

Is anyone celebrating Yule? If so in which way?
father_winter_by_pebblepixie.jpg

[Dr_Maul]

Shabe Yalda...

[Avicenna]

Shabe Yalda...

Yeah today is Shab e yalda for afghans too

[CelticForest]

bump

[sean]

Happy Yule, whether you are a believer in the old gods, or a worshipper of only one or none at all.



Good Yule to you, one and all.

[Avicenna]

Anyone notice the similarities between the name "yalda " and " yuletide "?

Apparently the Iranian people got the name yalda from Syriac speaking Christians who actually called Christmas as yalda :

"Through them, Iranians (i.e. Parthians, Persians etc.) came in contact with Christian religious observances, including, it seems, Nestorian Christian Yalda, which in Syriac (a Middle Aramaic dialect) literally means "birth" but in a religious context was also the Syriac Christian proper name for Christmas,"

The name Yuletide used by the Germanic people's :

"Yuletide, a word used as a synonym for Christmas, is a combination of Yule, from the pagan winter festival Jol, and tide, which here refers to an annual festival or the season of said festival. ... Both geōl and its etymological cousin from Old Norse (jōl) referred to a midwinter pagan festival that took place in December."

Strange coincidence ?

[Avicenna]

Anyone notice the similarities between the name "yalda " and " yuletide "?

Apparently the Iranian people got the name yalda from Syriac speaking Christians who actually called Christmas as yalda :

"Through them, Iranians (i.e. Parthians, Persians etc.) came in contact with Christian religious observances, including, it seems, Nestorian Christian Yalda, which in Syriac (a Middle Aramaic dialect) literally means "birth" but in a religious context was also the Syriac Christian proper name for Christmas,"

The name Yuletide used by the Germanic people's :

"Yuletide, a word used as a synonym for Christmas, is a combination of Yule, from the pagan winter festival Jol, and tide, which here refers to an annual festival or the season of said festival. ... Both geōl and its etymological cousin from Old Norse (jōl) referred to a midwinter pagan festival that took place in December."

Strange coincidence ?

[Mejgusu]

Yeah today is Shab e yalda for afghans too

Cool, i knew there are some non-islamic traditions among Iranians but never heard of this. I thought only nevruz is a wide spread non islamic practice, some even bid me a happy nevruz haha.

[Avicenna]

No.

Names like like Yalda, Nowruz, Chaharshanbe Suri, Mehregan, and more have either Mithraic or Zoroastrian origin. Yalda is not Persian Yuletide as the cultures are totally different. They just share the same Indo-European language.

Same thing goes for Christmas. The similarities with various other cultures are mostly vague.

Yes Christianity has been heavily influenced by paganism

[Dr_Maul]

Cool, i knew there are some non-islamic traditions among Iranians but never heard of this. I thought only nevruz is a wide spread non islamic practice, some even bid me a happy nevruz haha.

Nowruz is the only one which is shared by our neighbors I’m pretty sure so that’s not surprising
But we have quite a few (I assume these are in AFG as well) such as Sizda be dar, Chaharshanbe Suri, Mehregan, and a couple other minor ones