Pir Shalyar, an elderly man, cured an ailing princess after many physicians failed to help her. The princess’ father then agreed to let Pir Shalyar marry his daughter in a ceremony held on the 40th day of winter. So goes the legend that dates back at least 700 years.
A pir is a pilgrimage site in the Zoroastrian faith.
The celebration is held twice a year both in the middle of winter and the spring in Hawraman, located west of Iran.
People in Hawraman are Kurds living in the mountainous regions divided by borders between Iraq and Iran. They speak their own dialect called Hawrami.
The celebration is over three weeks. In the first week, children distribute walnuts, telling people that the ceremony is coming. At dawn on the Wednesday of the second week, children sing songs from the rooftops of their homes. After sunrise, cows and sheep are sacrificed and in the evening, people play the daf drum and pray.
On the final day of the celebration, bread baked from wheat and walnut and shaped like the sun are brought to the tomb of Pir in Iran’s Kurdistan province.
Some tie pieces of clothing to a tree near the shrine as they make a wish.
Zoroastrianism is an ancient religion which grew to popularity in present-day Iran and some parts of Iraq and then spread to the rest of the world.
Zoroastrians are best known by their religious motto “Good Thoughts, Good Acts, and Good Deeds”. They believe in one God, that the world is divided between the good, represented by fire or light in their rituals, and the devil, and a day of judgement.
Many of its adherents in Kurdistan believe the founder of the religion, Zoroaster or Zardasht as it is called in Kurdish, was a Kurd and he spoke a variation of Kurdish language called Avesta.
Kurdish Zoroastrians believe that the Kurdish dialect of Hawrami, still widely spoken in Kurdish areas in Iran and Iraq, has many similarities to the ancient language.
Hawramis believe that the language has remained largely intact due to the limited contact they had with the outside world. Their mountainous areas kept them safe from foreign rule for much of their history.
Photos by Bahman Shabazi
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