xanthanotus
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The Persian Empire.
Religious beliefs, practices, festivals plus the religions of other areas of the empire.
The Persians through out their history as we know it, conquered almost all the then known world, their accomplishments were great in the areas of conquering, unifying and governing territories, but these achievements also extended to the area of religion.
As in other areas of the empire, each conquered nation was permitted to retain their chosen religions, for example when Egypt was conquered it retained its polytheism religious beliefs and practices and its belief in the divinity of the pharaoh, and to acknowledge there acceptance of this belief system Persian kings, carried out all the expected rituals of a new Egyptian king.
However while providences where able to retain their chosen religion, around 650BC a new religion took hold, it captured the spiritual and social imagination of the Persians and helped to unite the empire, it was also considered the official religion of the achaemenid dynasty. Its founder was the Persian prophet Zoroaster, the religion known as Zoroastrianism, in its roughest outlines is a dualistic religion. In Zoroaster's cosmos, the universe was under the control of two contrary gods, Ahura Mazda, the creating god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil. These two evenly matched gods are in an epic struggle over creation. And at the end of time Ahura Mazda and his forces will emerge victorious. All creation, all gods all religions and all of human history and experiences can be understood as part of this struggle between light and darkness good and evil. Zoroastrianism however is a distinctively Eschatological religion, meaning that values and meanings in this world is orientated towards the end of history and the final defeat of ahriman and all those gods, humans and other animated forces arrayed on the dark side of creation.
This religion fitted in well with the empires tolerance of religions, as while Ahura Mazda and Ahriman were considered the ‘supreme gods’ they were supported by minor deities, which were made up of other gods and goddesses from the various religions in the empire.
Priests called Magi oversaw the Zoroastrian rites. The magi originally formed a priestly clan among the Medes, but later adopted Zoroastrianism after it spread thought the Persian Empire.
Zoroastrians regarded fire as pure creation and thus fire became the symbol of Zoroastrianism, under the achaemenids open air fire alters were constructed, the fire was constantly kept burning and it was here many religious rituals took place, a common misconception is that Zoroastrians were fire worshiper, but they are not fire is simply considered a symbol of the manifested power of ahura mazda.
The Zoroastrians sacred book was known as the Avesta, it is the main source of knowledge concerning the religious and spiritual life of the Persians.
Only a relatively small portion of the original has been preserved. It is believed that the Avesta originally contained 21 books, but only one, the vendidad, which is the religious law code of Zoroastrianism, has been preserved.
Inscriptions from both Darius and Xerxes reflect the early beliefs of Zoroastrianism, they are full of praise for Ahura Mazda, they both stressed truthfulness and seem to have regarded the lie as an evil force. Neither Darius or Xerxes mentions any other god besides Ahura Mazda, and it is in doubt whether they were confessed disciples of the prophet Zoroaster as none of their inscriptions mention him by name. Later on Artaxerxes II had inscriptions produced that reflected the approved worship of other divinities under Zoroastrianism, he honoured not only Ahura Mazda but also mithra, the male divinity of contracts and later of fire and anahita, the female divinity of water, fertility and kingship.
Like all groups of people the Persians celebrated many different festivals during the year. One of the main festivals being known as the renewal festival, the Persians adopted this festival from the Babylonians and incorporated it into the Zoroastrian religion. The last day of the Persian month Azar is the longest night of the year, where the forces of Ahriman are assumed to be at the peak of their strength. While the next day the first day of the month also known as day is referred to as kahore rooz, the day of sun. And belongs to Ahura Mazda. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of the sun over darkness.
Fires would be burnt all night to ensure the defeat of the forces of Ahriman, there would be feasts, acts of charity and a number of deities were honoured and prayers preformed to ensure the total victory of the sun that was essential for the protection of winter crops. There would be prayers to mithra and feasts in his honour since mithra was considered responsible for protecting the light of the early morning. It was also assumed that Ahura Mazda would grant peoples wishes.
Another festival that the Persians celebrated was known as the Suri festival, this was the celebration of the last 10 days of the year in their annual obligation feasts of all souls, they believed foruhars, the guardian angels for humans and also the spirits of the dead would come back for reunion. Bon fires were set up to welcome the return of departed souls and small clay figurines in the shape of humans and animals symbolising all departed relatives and animals were placed in the house.
Flames were burnt all night to ensure the returning spirits were protected from the forces of Ahriman. there were gatherings, with prayers and communal consumption of ritually blessed foods. Rich and poor met together, and the occasion was a time of general goodwill when quarrels were made up and friendships renewed.
Much of the information about persian religion and festivals are gained from what is left of the avesta, today many people still subscribe to the beliefs of zoroaster, so many of the rituals performed have in their essence been preserved, though slightly altered, while there are numerous secondary acounts of rituals and festivals celebrated by the ancient persians, many of these have not been supported by strong evidence, so their reliability is unknown.
Religious beliefs, practices, festivals plus the religions of other areas of the empire.
The Persians through out their history as we know it, conquered almost all the then known world, their accomplishments were great in the areas of conquering, unifying and governing territories, but these achievements also extended to the area of religion.
As in other areas of the empire, each conquered nation was permitted to retain their chosen religions, for example when Egypt was conquered it retained its polytheism religious beliefs and practices and its belief in the divinity of the pharaoh, and to acknowledge there acceptance of this belief system Persian kings, carried out all the expected rituals of a new Egyptian king.
However while providences where able to retain their chosen religion, around 650BC a new religion took hold, it captured the spiritual and social imagination of the Persians and helped to unite the empire, it was also considered the official religion of the achaemenid dynasty. Its founder was the Persian prophet Zoroaster, the religion known as Zoroastrianism, in its roughest outlines is a dualistic religion. In Zoroaster's cosmos, the universe was under the control of two contrary gods, Ahura Mazda, the creating god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil. These two evenly matched gods are in an epic struggle over creation. And at the end of time Ahura Mazda and his forces will emerge victorious. All creation, all gods all religions and all of human history and experiences can be understood as part of this struggle between light and darkness good and evil. Zoroastrianism however is a distinctively Eschatological religion, meaning that values and meanings in this world is orientated towards the end of history and the final defeat of ahriman and all those gods, humans and other animated forces arrayed on the dark side of creation.
This religion fitted in well with the empires tolerance of religions, as while Ahura Mazda and Ahriman were considered the ‘supreme gods’ they were supported by minor deities, which were made up of other gods and goddesses from the various religions in the empire.
Priests called Magi oversaw the Zoroastrian rites. The magi originally formed a priestly clan among the Medes, but later adopted Zoroastrianism after it spread thought the Persian Empire.
Zoroastrians regarded fire as pure creation and thus fire became the symbol of Zoroastrianism, under the achaemenids open air fire alters were constructed, the fire was constantly kept burning and it was here many religious rituals took place, a common misconception is that Zoroastrians were fire worshiper, but they are not fire is simply considered a symbol of the manifested power of ahura mazda.
The Zoroastrians sacred book was known as the Avesta, it is the main source of knowledge concerning the religious and spiritual life of the Persians.
Only a relatively small portion of the original has been preserved. It is believed that the Avesta originally contained 21 books, but only one, the vendidad, which is the religious law code of Zoroastrianism, has been preserved.
Inscriptions from both Darius and Xerxes reflect the early beliefs of Zoroastrianism, they are full of praise for Ahura Mazda, they both stressed truthfulness and seem to have regarded the lie as an evil force. Neither Darius or Xerxes mentions any other god besides Ahura Mazda, and it is in doubt whether they were confessed disciples of the prophet Zoroaster as none of their inscriptions mention him by name. Later on Artaxerxes II had inscriptions produced that reflected the approved worship of other divinities under Zoroastrianism, he honoured not only Ahura Mazda but also mithra, the male divinity of contracts and later of fire and anahita, the female divinity of water, fertility and kingship.
Like all groups of people the Persians celebrated many different festivals during the year. One of the main festivals being known as the renewal festival, the Persians adopted this festival from the Babylonians and incorporated it into the Zoroastrian religion. The last day of the Persian month Azar is the longest night of the year, where the forces of Ahriman are assumed to be at the peak of their strength. While the next day the first day of the month also known as day is referred to as kahore rooz, the day of sun. And belongs to Ahura Mazda. Since the days are getting longer and the nights shorter, this day marks the victory of the sun over darkness.
Fires would be burnt all night to ensure the defeat of the forces of Ahriman, there would be feasts, acts of charity and a number of deities were honoured and prayers preformed to ensure the total victory of the sun that was essential for the protection of winter crops. There would be prayers to mithra and feasts in his honour since mithra was considered responsible for protecting the light of the early morning. It was also assumed that Ahura Mazda would grant peoples wishes.
Another festival that the Persians celebrated was known as the Suri festival, this was the celebration of the last 10 days of the year in their annual obligation feasts of all souls, they believed foruhars, the guardian angels for humans and also the spirits of the dead would come back for reunion. Bon fires were set up to welcome the return of departed souls and small clay figurines in the shape of humans and animals symbolising all departed relatives and animals were placed in the house.
Flames were burnt all night to ensure the returning spirits were protected from the forces of Ahriman. there were gatherings, with prayers and communal consumption of ritually blessed foods. Rich and poor met together, and the occasion was a time of general goodwill when quarrels were made up and friendships renewed.
Much of the information about persian religion and festivals are gained from what is left of the avesta, today many people still subscribe to the beliefs of zoroaster, so many of the rituals performed have in their essence been preserved, though slightly altered, while there are numerous secondary acounts of rituals and festivals celebrated by the ancient persians, many of these have not been supported by strong evidence, so their reliability is unknown.