Directory_and_Chronicle_1868 — Page 50

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PARSEE FESTIVALS, FASTS, AND OBSERVANCES.

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In their calculation of the year only 365 days are allowed; leap year is unknown to them, though there are records which prove that in every 120 years one month was added to make it correspond with the solar year. The year is divided into twelve months, or thirty days each, and five days, or “Gathas,” as they are called, are added at the end to make up the deficiency. On these days the Parsees rise early, and dress themselves in new suits of clothes, and those piously disposed say their prayers in their private residences, or visit their friends and relatives, when the "Hama i-jur" or joining of hands is performed; this ceremony is a sort of greeting, corresponding to the European fashion of wishing each other a happy new year. Their friends and relations are invited to breakfast. The morning thus occupied, they spend the rest of the day in their country houses or clubs, where feasting, rejoicing, and nach-parties are kept up till a late hour. Alms are also given to the poor in the course of the day, and new suits of clothes are presented to ser- vants and dependents.

KHURDAD-SAL.-The second of the Parsee festivals is the "Khurdad-Sal" day, or the anniversary of the birth of their prophet Zoroaster, who they say was born in the city of Reh, in the North of Persia, in the reign of Darius Hystapis, about 520 years before Christ. Heeren places the birth of this celebrated personage about 1,200 years anterior to this. The Parsees themselves difler as to the exact time of the birth of their prophet: a part of them fix the period of B.C. 389; others at B.C. 538. Religious ceremonies are performed in the morning by the women of the family and the priests, the men, as usual on such occasions, limiting themselves to private prayers.

AMURDAD-SAL.-This holiday, which falls on the day immediately after the preceding festival, appears to have no origin in the books of the Parsecs. It is merely kept up as the continuation of the "Khurdad-Sal;" no religions ceremonies are required, and the day is always spent in the enjoyment of epicurean pleasures.

FARURHARDIN JASAN.-This day is set apart for the performance of ceremonies for the dead "Fararhar," meaning soul or spirit. The superstitious portion of the people attend on the hills at Chaopatty (Bombay), where their "dockmas" or "towers of silence" are situated, and there perform prayers for the dead, as if they had a better chance of being heard at that place on behalf of their deceased relations than in any other. This holiday is kept with some slight variations in other parts of India. The Parsees are enjoined by their religion to preserve the memory of their dead by annual religious ceremo- nies performed in the house; but such of their friends as die on long voyages or in unknown places, and the date of whose death cannot be positively ascertained, are, according to the terms of their religion, honoured by sacred rites on this day. The ceremony "consists in a man or woman preparing small round pieces of baked bread, called daruns, which are put on a tray or other copper vessel, along with fruits and flowers, over which the priest performs the prayers of the Baj, or "Vaj," as it is called by M. Anquetil Du Perron in his "Zend Avesta." According to the translation published by this learned Frenchman, the Baj is an invocation of the names of the departed, and of such of the angels as have a direct control over the souls of the dead after their departure from this world. Prayers of this sort are still performed among the Hindus and the Mahomedans, and are not unknown in the Roman Catholic countries of Europe.

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ARDEBEHIST-JASAN.-This festival, as its name implies, is maintained in honour of Ardebehist Amshaspand, the angel controlling the sacred fire, that element being one of the symbols of worship. The fire-temples are crowded on this day, sandalwood is offered to the sacred flame, and prayers offered to the Supreme Deity.

THE NOWROZ.-The fifth on the list is the celebrated Nowroz, called by some the Nowroz-i-Jamshid or the Nowroz-i-Sultan, the King's day. This celebrated festival falls generally about the 21st day of March, and corresponds with our Vernal Equinox. This day is observed by the modern Persians, the Arabs, the Turks, and several other Asiatic nations for the computation of the solar year, and for state purposes, such as the collection of revenue, and the arrangements for the agricultural operations of the year. Eastern writers date the origin of this festival from the time of Jamshid, the third king of the Peshdadian dynasty of Persia. Jamshid is supposed by Bailly to have flourished 3,209 years before Christ; the Shah Namah celebrates him as the first prince of his race who

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