On the longest night of the year, when much of the world is preparing for Christmas, Persian-speaking families gather around pomegranates, watermelon and a book of poetry and stay up late. This is شب یلدا, Shab-e Yaldâ, Yalda night.
When it is
Yalda is the night of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, which falls on 20 or 21 December. In the Persian calendar it is the night between the last day of the autumn month of Âzar and the first day of the winter month of Dey. It is the longest night of the year; from the next morning the days begin to lengthen again.
The festival is also called شب چله, Shab-e Chelle, "the night of the forty", because it opens the first forty days of winter, traditionally counted as the coldest part of the year. The name Yalda itself is generally traced to a Syriac word meaning "birth".
What it means
The idea behind Yalda is very old and very simple: darkness is at its strongest on this night, and from this night on, light wins. In ancient Iranian tradition the long night was a time to stay together, keep the fire burning and stay awake until the sun returned. Today it is observed far beyond any religious meaning, as an evening for family, food and poetry. In 2022 UNESCO added Yalda, under the names Yaldā and Chella, to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
What is on the table
Red is the colour of the night. The fruit that people eat is said to recall the colour of dawn and the warmth of the summer that has passed.
- Pomegranate (انار, anâr). Often served as seeds in a bowl, sprinkled with a little salt and dried mint or golpar, a fragrant Persian spice.
- Watermelon (هندوانه, hendevâne). A summer fruit kept specially for this night. It is said that eating it on Yalda protects you from illness in the cold months and from thirst in the summer to come.
- Nuts and dried fruit (آجیل, âjil). Pistachios, almonds, walnuts, roasted chickpeas, raisins, dried figs and mulberries.
- Sweets, and in many regions a local speciality, from pumpkin dishes to particular kinds of halva.
- Tea, of course, all evening. See our article on tea and hospitality.
In older houses the family would sit around a کرسی (korsi), a low table with a heater underneath and a large quilt spread over it, with everyone's legs tucked into the warmth. Many people remember it as the heart of their childhood winters.
Poetry and the fortune of Hafez
The custom that makes Yalda different from any other dinner is فال حافظ, fâl-e Hâfez. Hafez, the fourteenth-century poet of Shiraz, is so loved that his collected poems are found in most Persian-speaking homes. On Yalda night, each person in turn makes a wish or thinks of a question. The eldest, or whoever reads best, opens the book at random and reads the poem on that page aloud. The poem is taken as an answer.
Because Hafez writes about love, patience, hope and the passing of hard times in language that can be read in many ways, the answer always seems to fit. Nobody treats it as fortune-telling in a serious sense. It is a game, a reason to read great poetry together, and often the moment of the evening that people remember.
In some families stories from Ferdowsi's Shâhnâme, the Persian Book of Kings, are read as well, and grandparents tell tales from their own childhood.
How the evening goes
The gathering is traditionally at the home of the eldest members of the family, the grandparents. Everyone arrives after dinner or eats together, the fruit is brought out, and the night is spent talking, laughing, reading and eating until well after midnight. Newly engaged couples have their own custom in some regions: the groom's family sends a decorated tray of fruit and gifts to the bride.
The greeting is simple: یلدا مبارک, Yaldâ mobârak, "Happy Yalda". You will also hear شب یلداتون مبارک, shab-e yaldâtun mobârak, "a happy Yalda night to you".
Yalda in Persian speech
Because it is the longest night, Yalda has become an image in poetry and everyday speech for anything long and dark that will nevertheless end: a separation, a period of waiting, a hard year. To say that a night was "as long as Yalda" needs no explanation to a Persian speaker, and the thought that follows it is always the same: morning comes.
Yalda abroad
For families outside Iran and Afghanistan, Yalda falls in the middle of the December holiday season, usually on a working day. It has travelled well all the same, because it needs so little: a pomegranate, some nuts, a copy of Hafez or a phone that can display one, and people to share it with.
- Watermelon in December is easier to find than it used to be; when it is not, a red fruit of any kind keeps the spirit.
- Many families hold the gathering on the nearest Saturday so that children can stay up.
- Relatives in other countries join by video call for the reading of Hafez, which works surprisingly well across time zones.
- Persian associations and student groups in many cities organise a public Yalda evening with music and poetry.
And for people who are far from family that night, online chat rooms fill with Yalda greetings, lines of Hafez and photographs of pomegranates from every time zone. It is one of the evenings of the year when a room full of strangers feels most like a family gathering.
If you are invited
Bring fruit, nuts, sweets or flowers. Expect to be offered food many times, in the spirit of taarof. When the book of Hafez comes round, make a wish, even if you do not understand a word of the poem. Someone will be delighted to explain it to you, and that conversation will last a good part of the longest night.