MEHREGAN & MEHR

MEHREGAN & MEHR

The word ‘Mehr’ in the Avesta, the religious text of the Zoroasrians, and in the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenians stands for ‘contract’, ‘treaty’, ‘kindness’, and ‘sun’. The seventh month of the solar year and the sixteenth day of each month were also called ‘Mehr’. The sixteenth day of each month was ascribed to the angel of light and it is known as the Mehrruz, Mithra Day or Sun-day. This day was the beginning of a glorified festival that was called Mithrakana in ancient times. Mithrakana means “belonging to Mithra” and the word Mehregan is derived from that. This celebration was the second of the two major celebrations of the ancient world in which the calendar was divided into two seasons. Mehregan was celebrated at the beginning of winter and Noruz, at the beginning of summer. For both these celebrations people would wear new clothes, drink certain wine, and dance. According to the Bundahishn, the Zoroastrian book of creation, it was on Mehregan that Mashia and Mashianih or first man and first woman emanated from Kayuomars, the first legendary being on earth. During the period of the Alexandrian invasion, Mithra, under the names Mithradates or Mehrdad, was invoked when oaths were sworn. In fact, worshipping Mithra had such a great impact that it influenced Alexander’s army and later widely penetrated the Roman Empire as a religious movement with its own ceremony, festival, and celebration. Remains of Mithraic temples can be found in different spots of Europe and Asia. There are quotations from many scholarly sources in Persian and Arabic about Mehregan. For example, in Biruni’s celebrated work Asar al-Baqiyyah fi Qurun al-Khaliyyah (The Traces of the Past Centuries), we read that it was in ‘Mehr-ruz’ that the uprising of the renowned blacksmith Kaveh brought the legendary ruler Fereydoon to power and overcame evil forces of Zahhak. In memory of that victory, they used to assign a champion as a “town crier” to shout “0 angels, come to this world and save it from the harm of the evil forces!”. It is said that on this day the lord of the universe spread the earth, gave souls to bodies, and at the same time, the moon received light from the sun. According to legend, since Zahhak’s rule lasted for a thousand years, and it is noticed that it may be possible to live that long, people wish each other thousand-year-old lives. The Mehregan celebration was so greatly respected that even after the advent of Islam it was accepted and celebrated by most of the people in the Arab world under its Arabic name Mehrjan.

vol1_no4_win2002.pdf

Persia House of Michigan

2002 - Winter

vol1_no4_win2002.pdf (p.4)

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