Mehregan: The Festival of Freedom and the Unity of the Iranian Lands

For thousands of years, Mehregan, alongside Nowruz, has been one of the two great national celebrations of Iranians throughout this vast land. It is an ancient commemoration observed across millennia, on the day of Mehr in the month of Mehr (10–16 Mehr), by many Iranian peoples—Kurdish, Lur, Azeri, Baluch, Tajik, Talysh, Ossetian, Pamiri, and many others.

Mehregan commemorates the day on which the peoples of the Iranian lands regained their freedom and independence. For this reason, throughout the long history of the Iranian cultural realm, the day has been celebrated by the different Iranian peoples and, from this perspective, has played an important role in maintaining Iranian cultural cohesion and national identity, and in sustaining resistance to foreign domination.

According to historical testimony and accounts attributed to major figures including Ferdowsi, Asadi Tusi, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, and many others, Mehregan commemorates Fereydun’s victory over Zahhak, made possible by the uprising of Iranians under the leadership of Kaveh the Blacksmith.

Ferdowsi recounts Fereydun’s institution of the festival of Mehregan in these verses:

When Fereydun gained mastery over the world,
he knew no sovereign other than himself.
In the manner of the Kayanids he adorned
the crown and throne of greatness,
and raised the royal palace.
On the auspicious day at the beginning of Mehr,
he placed the Kayanid crown upon his head.
The age was freed from the sorrow of evil;
each person took the path of the divine.
They set disputes aside
and established, by custom, a new celebration.

Mehr is a unique word in Persian: a word that signifies both light and love, and if we add its ancient meaning, Mithra, it also carries the sense of covenant and pact. The ancient deity Mithra was the guardian of covenants and a powerful guarantor of justice—the same justice that ultimately seizes Zahhak.

Beyond all that has been said, Mehregan is a festival situated around the equinoctial period, when night and day, darkness and light, stand in balance. It is striking to recall that in Zurvanite belief, which existed among ancient Iranians, “Mehr–Mithra” stood as an intermediary between Hormazd, the embodiment of goodness and light, and Ahriman. Mehr stands at the gate between two worlds at war, at the threshold of darkness and light, positioned between them. Thus, on the day of Mehr, each side stands in equality on either side of him and day and night are equal. Yet this position in the middle is not, in this interpretation, merely mediation between two worlds. When Ahriman attacks light and goodness, the appearance of Mithra announces that through the light of Mehr, Ahriman has been stopped at the gates of the world of light. It then falls to human beings to drive him back into the depths of darkness, and in this struggle Mehr stands as witness to their covenant.

The legends and myths of a people always bear witness to ideals inscribed upon that people’s spirit. Many ask why we should celebrate and preserve Mehregan. My answer is that for thousands of years many peoples from east, west, north, and south have invaded the lands of Iranians, and the history of our land has therefore contained centuries of occupation and separation among Iranian peoples.

From the legendary invasion of Zahhak and the thousand-year occupation of Airyanem Vaejah, to the destructive Assyrian invasion that brought devastation to the Iranian civilisation of Elam; from the occupation of Iran by Alexander, to the invasions and occupations under the Arab Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, and then the Mongol invasions and those that came afterward—we have repeatedly lived through conditions in which the seemingly natural outcome would have been that nothing remained of the name of our land and its ancient culture, just as, in this telling, little remained of ancient Egypt and the Eastern Roman world. Yet one of the great wonders of history is that this did not happen. We stood against Assyria, the Macedonians, Rome, the Mongols, and the Arabs until we watched their decline, without ceasing for a moment to embody Iranian culture.

It is the power of our culture that has carried us through the most terrifyingly long nights of our history, some lasting for centuries, and saved us from disappearance and dissolution in the storms of time.

Arthur Pope, the archaeologist who devoted his life to studying Iranian civilisation and culture, wrote in praise of the historical resilience of Iranians and their ability to preserve their cultural heritage:

“The world has rarely seen a cultural power so alive and active. Greece and Rome, during certain periods of history, surpassed Iran in the number of fertile ideas and the breadth of their effective range; but the age of Greece and Rome was very short in comparison with the history of Iran. If the measure is the historical life of Iran, Greece appears only as a glorious episode, and the grandeur of Rome as only a scene in the drama of the world. An appearance of such magnitude and strength during difficult periods in human history can be misleading. Not only the history of Asia but the history of the world will remain incomprehensible until the sources of Iran’s cultural power are discovered, articulated and measured, the extent of their influence assessed, and their meaning properly understood.”