Yalda night celebration is the best opportunity to perform joyful shows

The date of celebration of Shab Cheleh (Yalda) in Iran dates back to several thousand years ago. This celebration, which is held on the last night of autumn (30 Azar / December 21), is a celebration of the victory of light over darkness; Because from the next day , the length of the day and the time the sun shines on the earth will increase.

Javad Esnafi is an artist who has been active in the field of Iranian ritual and traditional performing arts for many years. He believes about Shab Cheleh celebration that this celebration is one of the most important authentic Iranian rituals, which is considered the best opportunity to perform joyful shows.

                                                                                     

He addes: "Many shows and dramas come out of the hearts of traditional rituals. I wrote a book about this theme entitled "Yalda Night Rituals and Chele Zari and Uncle Chele Jon's Show". In order to write this book, I did a four-year research on Shab Chele rituals in different parts of Iran and collected the rituals of this celebration in Azerbaijan, Lorestan, Fars, Gilan, Mazandaran and Tehran provinces.”

This veteran director explains about the role of "Siah" in the day after Yalda night: "In the research I did on Yalda night rituals in Iran, I came across documents about the presence of the "Siah" character on the next day of  the Cheleh ceremony, which was very interesting to me.

On the day after  Yalda night, when the king usually received the people and came among the people, When some people met the Shah with flattery and enthusiasm, Siah mocked them and exposed their deceit and hypocrisy. Of course, I must say that the blackened face of this character is due to the smoke caused by coal and other combustibles in winter, and it is not a sign of racism and insulting others."

 

Ensafi  talkes about one of the rituals of Cheleh night, when all the family members gather at the grandparents' house: " According to the number of guests on the night of Yalda, who gathered at the house of the elders of the family, they would bake tutek or cookies, and in the heart of one of these cookies, they would put a bead, and everyone who got it would receive a prize.”

This actor continues: "All these games and rituals, such as eating Shab Chele nuts, are not unwise, and they have interpretations that I tried to look at these rituals with a modern perspective, in a theatrical format, and in the show "Chele Zari and Uncle Chele Jon" I will mention them."

This popular culture researcher also mentions the colors of the Shab Chele celebration: "In the Shab Chele ritual, we use red and yellow fruits and foods, or the colors of sunrise and sunset; Such as watermelon, pomegranate, persimmon, orange, pumpkin, Beet, nuts, etc., which evokes the fight between light and darkness.