One of the most ancient Iranian festivals is Shab-e Yalda or Yalda Night. Iranian around the world celebrate this night with their families and friends on the 21st of December.

Shab-e Yalda, “Night of Birth”, “Birth of Mithra”, or Shab-e Chelleh is the Iranian winter solstice celebration which has been popular since ancient times.

Yalda is celebrated on the Northern Hemisphere’s longest night of the year, that is, on the eve of the Winter Solstice. Depending on the shift of the calendar, Yalda is celebrated on or around December 20 or 21 each year.

In addition to Iran, countries such as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and some Caucasian states such as Azerbaijan and Armenia share the same tradition and celebrate Yalda Night annually at this time of the year.

 

People celebrate Yalda Night for different reasons, the arrival of winter, the renewal of the sun and the victory of light over darkness.

People in ancient times knew that from the first day of winter on, days get longer and nights get shorter gradually. What’s more, they knew darkness as a symbol of evil.

So, in fact, they considered the first morning after Yalda the day of victory of the sun and light over darkness and evil powers and celebrated it at this festival.

Nuts (ajil), and dried fruit (khoshkbar) are eaten on Iranian Yalda night. The special foods that are prepared for this night change from family to family and also depend on the availability of ingredients in different regions of Iran.

Among all the edibles, eating fruits such as watermelons, pomegranates, red apples, persimmons, and cooked beets are very popular.

So, it can be the color of these fruits as a color of sun, make them the integral parts of this ceremony.