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The Tehran Zoroastrian Association, marking the arrival of the Mehregan festival, extended its greetings on the occasion of this ancient celebration and highlighted its human and cultural values and its connection with the heritage of the Iranian cultural sphere.
The message issued by the Tehran Zoroastrian Association in commemoration of the ancient Mehregan tradition reads:
Mehregan: When Iran Speaks of Love and Affection
Mehregan is more than just a festival; it is the story of an ancient culture in which love triumphs over hatred, friendship over division, and light over darkness.
It is a celebration of Iran, a land that since ancient times has cherished love and friendship not only for itself, but also as a message to humanity and the world.
Mehregan reminds us that, amid all our differences, there is something more valuable than any border: humanity, love, peace, and affection.
Today, honoring Mehregan is not merely a commemoration of an ancient tradition; it is the preservation of a culture that can still offer the modern world a fresh and profoundly human message.
With pride, the Tehran Zoroastrian Association honors Mehregan as part of its commitment to safeguarding the cultural heritage and ancient traditions of Iran, because we believe that cultural heritage remains alive when we know it, live it, and pass it on to future generations with love.
May love and affection continue to flow through our homes, our society, and our homeland.
May the Mehregan festival be auspicious for all Iranians and all those who cherish the culture of Iran.
May love endure; may friendship endure; may Iran endure.
Tehran Zoroastrian Association
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Avesta, the Religious Books of the Parsis: From Professor Spiegel’s German Translation of the Original Manuscripts refers to an important English-language presentation of the sacred literature of Zoroastrianism, based on the scholarly German translation and study of the Avesta by the German Orientalist Friedrich Spiegel (1820–1905)
The Avesta is the principal body of sacred texts preserved by the Zoroastrian community, historically known in India as the Parsis. Its surviving books contain prayers, liturgical compositions, religious laws, rituals, theological teachings, and hymns associated with the Zoroastrian tradition. Among its oldest and most significant portions are the Gathas, traditionally associated with Zarathustra (Zoroaster) himself.
Spiegel's work belongs to the nineteenth-century European scholarly effort to recover, translate, and critically study the ancient Iranian religious texts from surviving Avestan manuscripts. His German translation sought to make the difficult Avestan material accessible while placing it within the broader linguistic and historical context of ancient Iran. Such scholarship was particularly important because the Avesta had survived through a long tradition of transmission, copying, interpretation, and priestly preservation.
The phrase “from Professor Spiegel’s German translation of the original manuscripts” is therefore significant: it indicates a work derived from Spiegel's German rendering of the Avestan texts rather than a translation made independently from the original language. For readers of the nineteenth century, publications of this kind provided an important bridge between the manuscript tradition preserved by Zoroastrian communities and the growing academic study of ancient Iranian religion, language, and culture.
Today, the Avesta remains one of the central sources for understanding Zoroastrian theology, ancient Iranian religious thought, Avestan language, ritual traditions, and the intellectual heritage of pre-Islamic Iran. Spiegel's scholarship is part of the early modern academic history through which these texts became increasingly accessible to Western readers and comparative scholars.
DIRECTOR. Ⓜ️ONTAZERI DESKTOP
