Continuance of Legend in Iranian Plays

Eliyade tries to find  evolution of legends in general culture, Bart explains it in ordinary day-to –day acts of humans and Yung tends to the effects of legends on human’s mind an subconscious.
Continuance of legends is traceable in Iranian plays too. Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh is a pure and complete example of legend continuance by form transformation, just as most of rituals, ceremonies and rites like Nowrooz, Charshanbe Soori, Sizdahbedar and Yalda night can be looked upon from the continuance of legends in contemporary life perspective.
Ever since its formation in ancient Greek up to now, theatre has been a proper excuse for legend continuation and existence. Strong footprints of the Greek legends can be found in outstanding Greek plays from Achil’s plays to Soufkle, Oripid and Aristophan, as the Greek theatre itself is risen from legendary celebrations and rituals such as Dionizuss.
Although Iranian plays were not theatre in its usual and familiar nature but until the Greek theatre’s entrance in Iranian culture and civilization, were the only forms of theatre. They are plays that due to their strong connection with religious rituals and ceremonies have strong legendary nature and have transformed legends with them to contemporary times.
Though in recent years a lot has been written and of course more has been said about the Iranian plays, but only in very few occasions their mythologist linage has been ignored whilst this part of the legend may be the most important reason of formation and existence of these plays.
A lot has been said about passion play (tazy –e) and its connection to Siavash’or Soovashoon’s grievance and its link to the agriculture legends and the relation between this theatrical ceremonies with the legends is completely clear for the professionals, as in recent years some valuable researches has been done about the dark character of Iranian plays and its relations with Mithra legends and also agricultural legends.
I will try to refrain from repetition of these two theatrical rituals in this short essay and will take a short look on other theatrical ceremonies from the mythological perspective. This essay has no claim in completing or proving the subject matter and it could be only viewed as a means to discuss this subject and the relation between two theatrical ceremonies and its precise continuance can be left to a more appropriate time or another researchers.
Mir-e-Nowroozi and the legend of (shah koshi)
Nowrooz Master or Mir-e-Nowroozi is among the theatrical ceremonies which has an old history of conductance in Iran and has been played in various areas of Iran, though the performance is almost completely vanished nowadays but some very rare examples of this performance may be seen in some areas like Kurdistan. This play has even expanded from Iran’s borders and some performances have been reported in Iraq (Vahbi 1366), Egypt (Metz 1364-65) and Kharazam (Joveyni 1388).
The ceremony with its long-windedness is based on choosing a fake king and replacing the real king with this fake one for a limited time period – 3, 5 or 13 days- when the fake king reigns in a symbolic way and other also take part in this play.
There are a lot of theories regarding the origin of this play, but this essay only wishes to pursue the legendary origin of this ceremony. Beizaiee (1380) believes that the Mir-e-Nowroozi ceremony is adapted from another old ceremony named Kooseh and says” in 5th and 6th lunar centuries the Koose ceremony had changed in the form and time of performance thus turned to Mir-e-Nowroozi or Nowroozi King.” Regarding philosophy of this ceremonies he adds” This play was in surface only for fun and laughter but deep down people’s vindictive reactions of the inferior people towards the upper scale people can be seen.” (Beizayiee 1380) Just as Qazvini (1324) believes the real objective of Mir-e-Nowroozi’s reign is mostly fun in Nowrooz holidays says” Obviously this person who during those few days reigns as a false king has no intentions but to make people laugh and have fun and play . (Qazvin 1324). Edmonds (1382) who in his book reports the Mir-e-Nowroozi ceremonies introduces this ceremony as an ancient historic celebration and says: “It is a spring celebration which has an ancient origin and in a way was a saturnalia, in vernal equinox which is equivalent to ancient Iranian New Year, people would get out of the county and would go to Sarchenar lakes and in this celebration, a chaos king was assigned to reign, this king had vast authority and would temporarily reverse so many rules , rituals and manners and suspend and stalled ordinary actions. (Edmonds 1382).
This essay about Mir-e-Nowroozi is mostly identical to Edmondz theory where he identifies Mir-e-Nowroozi with Saturnalia as in these rituals “the difference between the underclass and upper class people was temporarily vanished and the slave was able to bail out on his master, get drunk like him… Just as the power transfer to the slaves in Saturnalia, there was a draw between the slaves to find the fake king who would reign in this season from the slaves. The slave whose name would come out of the draw would become king and issue funny and hilarious orders for his temporary objects.” Fraser 1384
Two other interesting and important points of this Saturnali was that this celebration took place at the end of the last Roman month (December) and that the temporary kind was “free to do as he wishes, and have whatever wish he had in his heart, however vulgar and indecent; nevertheless his jolly reign was so short and had a tragic end as after 30 days at the Keyvan celebrations he would cut his own throat at God’s altar. (Same 0659)
The main reason for the similarities between this ceremony and Mir-e-Nowroozi celebrations goes back to the legendary origins of this ceremony rather than the connections between Iranian and Roman civilizations. The ceremony which Fraser mostly tends to it in his most distinguished book “Golden Branch” is the shah koshi ceremonies.  A ceremony, originated from the (Beyn ol Nahreyn) Nowrooz celebrations or the Ekitto. Mircha Illiad in his book “Legend” refers to the eternal return to the famous Ekitto celebrations in (Beyn ol Nahreyn) and calls the humiliation of the king’s ruling as the most important part of these celebrations.” The first stage of the said ceremony is the slave supremacy era and thus it is a kind of return to the legendary era before the creation. It is as if all kinds of disconnected beings in the primary abyss (and lajje) which is called Epso, are in a mess. Enthroning the carnival king, humiliating the real king, temporary fall of all the social regimes in the world, all indicate a total turmoil, overturn of order and degrees and debauchery and chaos.(illiad 1384)
If we believe the Iranian Mowrooz celebrations are originates and is a remainder of Babeli Aktive as Mehrdad Bahar has mentioned “ Formation of the carnival with the king in the game, king fighting a symbolic war and winning it and probably some group vinosity and displacement of social levels all are mutual between Ancient Iran and Beinolnahreyn. In fact, in disorder, a chaos and then a new order would take place simultaneously. The Nowrooz holidays and especially the 13th day of it may be the remainder of this same chaotic celebrations of the new year in Beinolnareyn. (Bahar 1384) and considering that the Mir-e-Nowroozi is a part of the New Year celebrations and spring celebrations, in fact the Mir – Nowroozi may be seen as the main sacrifice of the real king who causes chaos in his short temporary reign so that both in reality and as a symbolic means get overturned by the real king and the real king places order in the country.” Humiliation of king in Ekitto ceremonies is in fact a ritual repetition of killing the slavery and remaking the world by his body. This ceremony allegedly enters Iran and in the form of Nowrooz King or later by a more prominent name of Mir-e-Nowroozi gets known. (Samini 1387)
Koose hand Pastoral Legends
A Kooseh ceremony is one of the celebrations with theatrical nature which is performed in various parts of Iran with a few changes either in its name or in its performing ways. There are two completely different ways of Kooseh ceremony with two different objective that although they have some similarities, but at the same time are different both in the time and date of performance, the objective of performance and also the way of performance as below:
First type of Kooseh ceremony is in fact a form of praying for rain which has no specific date of performance and usually is played at times of drought. It is being played in Chaharmahal Bakhtiyari province by Kal Alikoose name, in Fars province by Koosagalin name, in Qazvin and Qom provinces by Kooseh Galin and in Kurdistan province by Kooeh or Kooseh Be Ban name. The ceremony is as follows: The youth of village prepare themselves for the ceremony since the evening and at night one of them s chosen as Kooseh and another one as bride. They will paint kooseh’s face black with coal and would make two long ears for him with a hat and if available would put a sheepskin on his back. The bride would wear a woman’s dress then the village’s youth would accompany the couple. The couple would go to each house door in the village and would slam his walking stick on the ground and made noises. The residents of the house would pour water on Kooseh’s head and would give him edibles like raisin, walnuts or eggs, thus the youth alongside the Kooseh and his bride would visit all houses of the village. Sometimes the bride would be kidnapped and Kooseh would chase the thief and get back his bride. (Rashash 2011).
The second form of this ceremony was played in the mid-winter around Bahman 15th after the dead of winter with different names i.e. in Central province it is called Kooseh Nighldi (Naghili) in Qom Kooseh Galdi, in Kurdistan Kooseh. The performance is slightly different in different part but the general performance is as follows:
In the dead of winter villages’ youth will gather in one’s house and choose someone from their group as Kooseh and will make him moustache, beard and ugly brows from white wool. They would also cover his head with a piece of cloth in a messy way. Another one is chosen as Kooseh’s wife, someone is accompanying them as a singer, another person is called monkey whose face is blackened with coal and a trustworthy person is chosen as the cashier by the youth. This group of 5 is accompanied by some noisy people.
They go to door-to –door in village, the landlord greets them at doorsteps. The singer sings, the monkey dances around Kooseh, his wife holds kooseh’s hand and the rest shout and make noises until the landlord is forced to give them something. Whatever they get like sugar cubes, tea, eggs, walnuts, etc is taken by the monkey and given to the treasurer. (Rasifi 1388)
Though the two ceremonies have many similarities like making fun of Kooseh (Shark) and making a beast face for it, going door-to-door at the village and receiving treats from houses, but the theatrical aspects of the second type of performance due to its performance schedule, distribution of roles among a few people and rules of performance is much more.  
Referring to some sources indicates that this ceremony is among Iranian ceremonies being celebrated before Islam. A distinguished source confirming this theory is Altafhim book by Abu Reyhan Birooni written on 5th lunar century, but most of its details date back to much older period. In his book, Birooni has described Kooseh as following:
“What is the celebration of Kooseh? At Khosrovan times, month Azar have been known as the first month of spring and on the first day of spring as a symbol of good luck a thin bearded man would sit on a donkey and hold a crow in his hand and blows himself with a fan, would bid farewell to winter and receive gifts from people, this is done in Shiraz city in our own time”. (Birooni 1363)
Birooni dates this ceremony back to Sassanid era.
Also in Qazvini’s book “Ajayeb Al Makhlooghat” written in 6th century, a brief description is written about this Kooseh ceremony and he describes it as this:
“First day of Azar month is called Hormoz day. This is the day of the thin bearded man who was the laughing stock of those times in Fars, would wear old clothes and ride a donkey, paint his body with colors have some hot meals and would ride through streets and blow himself with a fan in his hand and say oh it’s so warm and hot here. People would make fun of him and pour water and throw snow balls at him… and he who held some red roses in his hand, would hit people who refuse to gave him treats with the rose and strain their clothes with red color. ( Qazvini 1361)”.
Qazvini does not refer to the time or the origin of this celebration. The third reference also goes back to Islamic resources and the “In the Islamic era Spring celebration was called Celebration of departing the thin-bearded. (Christiansen 1389)
Beizaiee compares this celebration with Krasus’s humiliation celebrations and believed it is originated from Achaemenian era” We should not ignore the similarities between this celebrations and the group humiliation of Krasus. I believe if this is a game from Achaemenian era then the Krasus group should be an adaption from this celebration and if it belongs to Sassanid era then the Kooseh celebration is adapted from that group “. (Beizaiee 1380)
In Plutark’s description from the theatrical group who gather for humiliating Krasus by Sorena the Parthian commander, a lot of similarities can be found between the two celebrations like to seat him on a horse like Krasus, dress him with funny woman’s clothing and the dancers accompanying him on the road.
However, in author’s opinion, roots of celebrations like Kooseh should not be searched in historic happenings, it should be found in much older times as based on all evident, ritual celebrations like Kooseh are kind of pastoral legends and belongs to pastors.
For example in description of the execution of this celebrations, Kooseh’s entourage are mostly cattlemen and shepherds “The fiddler plays tambourine and the porters are usually shepherds who carry feedbags with them to collect the gifts, they play music, sing and dance and spread the word that the spring is coming” (Anjavy Shirazi 1354).
Also making long ears and horns for the Kooseh and turning he to an animal figure is also a reminder of pastoral characteristics of this celebration.
But the most important thing confirming the pastoral character of this celebration is its execution time which is in Saddeh celebrations that is a form of pastoral celebrations. “Iranians believe that winter is divided to two periods of forty days. The first period begins at Dec. 21 and ends at Jan. 17 and the Saddeh celebrations start at Jan 17 which marks the beginning of the second forty days period. This celebration is opposite of Mehregan celebration that belongs to farmers and the later one belongs to shepherds. (Zendehdel1387).
In the old times this celebrations belonged to shepherds and cowboys and its players were between 5-10 people Kooseh usually wears a felt coat which is a shepherd’s cloth and binds small bells to his elbows and hands and wears a kidskin on his head. All these ensure the pastoral origin of this celebration which goes back to very old times.
In the next chapter two Iranian theatrical celebrations will be reviewed by their legendary perspectives to open the doors to lasting the remains of Iranian Legends in Theatre and theatrical celebration forms.