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Mehregan (Mihragan or Mehrgan, Persian: مهرگان) or Jashn-e-Mehregan is a Zoroastrian and Iranian festival celebrated in honor of Mithra or Mehr, the divinity of covenant, and hence of interpersonal relationships such as friendship, affection and love.



Mehregan was probably once an Indo-Iranian festival, and possibly even older, but what form it had then remains in the realm of speculation. By the 4th century BCE, it was observed as one of the Zoroastrian name-day feasts, a form it retains even today, even in (predominantly) Islamic Greater Iran where it is of the few pre-Islamic festivals that continue to be celebrated by the public at-large.

As mentioned above, Mehregan is a name-day feast. These name-day feasts are festivals celebrated on the day of the year when the day-name and month-name dedicated to a particular divinity intersect. There are altogether 11 of these feasts, since 11 divinities have both day-name and month-name dedications. The twelfth, Dae, is not a divinity. Of these 11 name-day feasts, only two continue to have a wide following in Iran. These are Mehregan, as noted above, dedicated to Mithra/Mehr, and Tiregan, dedicated to Tishtrya/Tir.

Irrespective of which calendar is observed, Mehregan falls on the 196th day of the calendar year. For details on how this date is calculated, see basis for the date, below. For calendars that have March 21 as Nooruz or New Year’s day (i.e. in the Fasili and Bastani variants of the Zoroastrian calendar as well as in the Iranian civil calendar), Mehregan falls on October 2. For the Shahanshahi variant of the Zoroastrian calendar, which in 2006–2007 has New Year’s day on August 20, Mehregan fell on March 3 of the following Gregorian year. For the Kadmi variant, which has New Year’s day 30 days earlier, Mehregan falls on February 1.

In a non-Zoroastrian context, where Mehr/Mithra is no longer worshiped, Mehregan still remains a celebration amongst family and friends, but today it is recognized as a harvest festival. The festival symbolically ends with bonfires and fireworks, but should not be confused with Sadeh, which likewise is celebrated with bonfires but occurs near the end of the calendar year.

In Biruni’s 11th century Book of Instructions in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (233), the astronomer observed that “some people have given the preference to Mihragan [over Nowruz, i.e. New Year's day/Spring Equinox] by as much as they prefer autumn to spring.”

As Biruni also does for the other festival days he mentions, he reiterates a local anecdotal association for his description of Mehregan with a fragment of a tale from Iranian folklore: On this day, Fredon vanquished the evil Dahak and confined him to Mount Damavand. This fragment of the Fredon-Dahak legend is part of a greater cycle that ties Mehregan with Nowruz; Dahak vanquished Jamshid (who the legends have as the one establishing Nowruz or New Year’s day), and Fredon vanquishes Dahak, so restoring the balance.

The association of Mehregan with the polarity of spring/autumn, sowing/harvest and the birth/rebirth cycle did not escape Biruni either, for as he noted, “they consider Mihragan as a sign of resurrection and the end of the world, because at Mihragan that which grows reaches perfection.”

How to Prepare for Mehregan:
In Mehregan all families join together for observance and pray.
In some of the villages in Yazd , Zoroastrians still sacrifice sheep for Mehr. These sacrifices are done on the day of Mehregan and for three days afterwards. The sacrifice should be done during the hours of sunlight .roasted mutton is this day’s special dish. Some times this meal is distributed freely to all local people including the non-Zoroastrians. Other kinds of food and delicacies are also prepared to be shared by all (including dogs, which are venerated amongst Zoroastrians). There are special cookies which are prepare for this day and distributed in feast.

At the sun light of first day of festival prayers are gathered near the biggest spring of the village and pray for dead people. Then they go to village’s houses singing and dancing. Each house’s host open the house door for them and give some Mehregan’s nuts to them and then they go to temple of village and give the gathered nuts and gifts to the man who preserve the temple’s fire last year and ask him to preserve the fire for next year also and that man distributes nuts.

The greatest observance is the lighting outside this temple of a huge fire just after the sunset.

The rest of the days will be spent feasting, praying, singing and partying.

Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari (Chaharmahal o Bakhtiyari) (استان چهارمحال و بختیاری) Province with Shahrekord as capital lies in the southwestern part of the country.

The history of the province is tied to that of the Bakhtiari tribe. The Bakhtiari tribe can be divided into two sub-tribes, Haft Lang and Chahar Lang with various territorial affiliations and they are the main speakers of Lurish language.

As the name of the province dictates with the combining grammatical feature of “-o-” which is Persian for “and”; the other group of peoples in this ancient province are the Chahar Mahali’s.

These peoples and the Lur’s live side by side and share almost similar customs. Very slight differences exist between them but most are almost unnoticeable. However there is often quite a bit of intermixing of the peoples through marriage. The cities of Broujen, Ben, Naafch and Saman fall in the Chahar Mahali area of the province and are generally not inhabited by Lurs. The Bakhtiari territories at times have also come under Isfahan and Khuzestan province.

Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari counties

Cities and towns in this province:
Shahrekord, Shahrekian, Hafshejan, Borujen, Lordegan, Farsan, Ardal, Farrokhshahr, Naafch, Saman, Juneghan, Ben, Gandoman, Boldaji and Faradonbeh

The people of this province have a history of having a simple living and being a capable people who are determined and effective warriors and fighters whenever circumstances made it necessary. They have gained such a reputation as being excellent, if not the best, horsemen in Iran. The people of this province, while having the more common Pahlevani wrestling/combat style of the deep rooted traditional Zurkhane, which exists everywhere in all provinces, also have their own style of wrestling/unarmed combat as well (as do other provinces). The style is called Jangi (Jang means War and hence Jangi “war’ish” or “war like”).

The province has various unique traditions and rituals relative to the ‘tribal’ lifestyles. Special forms of music, dance, and clothing are noteworthy.
Main language(s): Persian (Farsi), Bakhtiari Lurish and Qashqai

Iran’s House of Cinema is calling on authorities to observe the rights of filmmakers and other members of the film community that have been arrested in the past week. In a statement, the House of Cinema (Khaneh Cinema) has urged its members to show more patience, while demanding that security and judicial authorities treat the recently detained filmmakers fairly and with due process.

The statement adds: “It is more than a week since a number of our documentary filmmakers have been detained. Unfortunately, the arrests are due to a misunderstanding regarding the sale of documentaries made by these filmmakers to the BBC television network.”

The announcement adds that the Islamic Republic has never had any laws against the international sale and distribution of films.

Iran’s official media reported on Friday that “a large network of those who provide information, film, topics and reports on various Iranian environments for the Persian BBC have been identified, and necessary action will be taken against them soon.”

Some media outlets have identified the detainees as Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Hadi Afarideh, Mohsen Shahnazdar, Katayoon Shahabi and Nasser Saffarian.

Following this report, Iran’s Minister of Culture and Guidance confirmed the arrest of six documentary makers by intelligence and security forces. The Ministry of Intelligence also announced that a number of people had been arrested for collaborating with Persian BBC.

The BBC has announced, however, that it has no employees or collaborators in Iran.
Source: Radio Zamaneh