YALDA Night with Hafez

Extracted from Rasekhoon
For many centuries, YALDA, the longest night of the year in Iranian homes is warmly celebrated. A ceremony that has not given its warmth to urban life, changing relationships and even distances. This celebration gives the new generation, freshness and thrill, and for the old generation, revives the sweet sorrows of the past.
In ancient beliefs, YALDA night was the longest and darkest night of the year; night was the devil's invasion to prevent the birth of the sun; and people were awake this night in the hope of the birth of sun and were staying awake whole night. The YALDA night or in other words the night of 40 (CHELE), is the beginning of a great CHELE that lasts from the first of DAY month to 10th of BAHMAN, and these 40 days are the coldest days of the year, which, according to the old belief, the newly born sun must be enlarged and gains strength to warm the ground. Another CHELE continues from 10th BAHMAN to 20th ESFAND, and is therefore called as Small CHELE, which has less cold weather." YALDA Night is a beautiful tradition that has been able to preserve itself with the new and scientific achievements of the modern world from distant past. " Mohammad Reza YOUSEFI, author and researcher continues: YALDA Night is one of the traditions that due to innovation and beauty which is in its essence, has managed to maintain its nature, despite being accompanied by different social types. He says to ISNA: YALDA night is a seasonal and generational communication circle, so it has come from distant past with a variety of games in nightlife and rural life, that is, the establishment of games such as "clay jar" which was reporting cold of winter and long life in homes. YOUSEFI states: The symbol of the YALDA night is the watermelon. A fruit with green cover which has special redness in it, and this redness represents the heat, sun and is a symbol of life and motion, and this redness beside cold, has been especially important in the past.
YALDA with Hafez
Author and poet Mustafa RAHMANDOUST believes that only the cultured families have remained loyal to the tradition of Hafez and reading the book of SHAHNAME. He says: YALDA night is based on two principles: eating fruits and nuts, although choosing each of them has a special philosophy, and the second is gathering and chatting together, which is commonly associated with reading the Hafez book.
He believes that in the past, educated and literate people were mixing the reading of Hafez book and reading the SHAHNAME, because all the families were not literate to enjoy such things as reading Hafez poems. RAHMANDOUST says: "At the moment, the situation is more or less the same, with the exception of families that care about culture and thoughts, others continue to follow the same old way, and try to feed their stomachs. He continues: "Although there is no comparative study on reading Hafez poems in the past and present, it can be claimed that only culturally educated families are now paying attention to this aspect of YALDA night. On the contrary to this idea, Mohammad AGHAPOUR, an anthropologist, believes that the reading poems ceremony at this night does not belong to a particular class of literary and culturally community, because in almost all the houses there is the book of Hafez, and reading Hafez book is not only for this night, but principally People believe in the poems of Hafez. According to him, the general belief in the Hafez horoscope is very strong.