Written by and published for : Sajjad Heydari (MCSH)
The Game of days and nights
Before I begin, sorry to all of those who live in the southern hemisphere. Tonight is not the longest night of the year for you, still you can focus on the message of the sermon rather than it’s relation to current time of the year.
Yalda, (pronounced Yaldā) the longest night of year in the northern hemisphere is coming. December 21st. Tonight. In some cultures, it is the night that light and sun are born. Since from tonight after, slowly day grows longer and longer, and nights become shorter ; this is the day that light deafeats night. Mitra, the angel of love and light, was born tonight, at the exact moment of sunrise.
According to myths, Mitra was born from a stone. He was wearing a hat, holding a bow and a sword. He shot the stone he came from, and a river came out of it. This river had the water of life. Then, a cow, that was sent from Hormoz (the great god) came to him. Mitra kills the cow by hitting it’s neck with the sword. The blood that came out of the cow, created Nature and Light.
Some religions believe that when the goddess of time sees the birth of Mazda, she doubts about the meanness of this world. From this doubt, Ahriman (Satan) cames to being, and when Hormoz -the god- sees the goddess of time’s pregnancy of Satan, he creates Mazda, the god of goodness.
These are all myths and stories. Things that never happened, of course. But what’s the point in these stories? It's up to individuals to take a meaning from these... I'll just point one out...
Earlier in this sermon, I mentioned things about light and dark. About Satan and God. About good and bad. The last myth was about birth of Ahriman, symbol of evil, darkness, badness... and birth of Mazda, symbol of goodness, serenity, light... if you look carefully... you'll notice that first... these two are both born from time. I think our ancestors are trying to say that these didn't exist at first... we brought them to this world... we defined them... is this true? Well... it's up to you to believe it or not... I can't explain more... not in this sermon at least. The second point... before the birth of evil... goodness didn't exist. And they became in this world together... I believe this means, without bad... good doesn't have a meaning. .. let me quote something from Tao before concluding this sermon:
2.
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non- being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
...
So...
Happy Yalda.
Happy birthday sun.
Happy birthday light.
Happy birthday Mitra.