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Check out our Yalda greeting in the video message above!
Dear John,
The holidays are upon us and while we’re celebrating our traditions with friends and family a little different this year, the meaning and importance of our cultural traditions stay the same. In a year that has been filled with new challenges, the ancient Iranian celebration of Yalda seems especially fitting.
In Zoroastrianism, Shab-e Yalda marks the Winter Solstice, when friends and family gather to stay up through the longest night of the year and protect each other from the darkness of Ahriman. Last night, Iranians of all backgrounds commemorate this special holiday as we do for most holidays, around feasts of food and loved ones.
Whether enjoying freshly dooned pomegranates or the poetry of Hāfez, Yalda is about the protection we seek in each other to ward off the darkness and celebrate the coming of the light.
No force is more powerful than community and solidarity, and it is because of the generosity of our community that NIAC can do its important work. Can you make a donation today to help advance our mission in the new year?
Truly, thank you for your unyielding support in the face of extraordinary obstacles, without which we would not have made it through the darkness.
SUPPORT Our Work. Donate Today.With gratitude,
Assal Rad
Senior Research Fellow, NIAC Action
📚 P.S. Make sure to pick your copy of a new and beautifully illustrated translation of the distinguished Persian-poet Hāfez, The Illuminated Hafiz: Love Poems for the Journey to Light.
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