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Maidyarem Gahanbar:

We celebrated the the 5th Gahanbar of the year called 'Maidyarem' at the Darbe Mehr in Toronto.  We had a good participation of about 250-275 people & feasted on a variety of delicious mouth-watering dishes. 

As you all know Maidyarem means "mid winter" or middle of  cold season.   It is celebrated from the 286th day of the year to the 290th day of the year, from Roz Mehr upto Roz Behram (Vehrahram) of the month (Mah) of Dey.  There are six Gahanbars in the year & they existed as seasonal or agricultural festivals much before the prophet's time.  Zarathushtra added to these seasonal celebrations, the extra component of celebrating the six creations of Ahura Mazda viz. the sky, water, earth, vegetation, animals & man.

We pray in the Afrin of Gahanbar: "Ashtaitim Maidyairyehe Dathusho Verethragh nahe pa hastad (80) roz, man Ahura Mazda a va Ameshaspandan fraz-tashid hend, ku gospendan (cattle) daad".

Which means "for 80 days I, Ahura Mazda worked with the Ameshaspands and created the beneficient cattle, celebrated the Gahanbar and named it Maidyairyehe".

The word 'Gahanbar' is a much later word not to be found in the Avesta.  The nearest word in 'Avesta' is "yairya" which means "Seasonal divisions of the year".  The word 'year' in the English language comes from "yare" in Avesta which means 'year'.  The word 'Gahanbar' comes from Pahlavi meaning 'collection (anbar) of time'.

There is a duty imposed on all Zoroastrians to join in the celebration of the Gahanbars, both to offer thanks for the different seasons but also to offer thanks for the six best objects of nature created by Ahura Mazda.  This duty is referred to in many places in our literature like the Minokherad, Shayast-ta-Shayast and the Bahman Yasht.

There are many ways in which one can participate in the feast of Gahanbar.  This is suggested in the 4 words that came again and again when I recited the Afrin of Gahanbar:

Yazad     =  to pray

Sazad     =  to perform

Khorad  =  to eat

Dehad   =  to give

The Afringan of  Gahanbar starts with the recitation of 4 Yatha Ahu Vairyos, symbolizing the 4 ways mentioned above in which one can participate in a Gahanbar.

It is worth noting that similar sacred feasts are mentioned for the ancient Hebrews or Jews in the Old Testament.

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Last modified: March 22, 1998