Welcome to the Hour of the Longest Night’s Journey: Yalda, or Cheleh Night

Welcome to the Hour of the Longest Night’s Journey: Yalda, or Cheleh Night

In ancient belief systems, sacred rituals are deeply tied to sacred times, and these times, in turn, are connected with numbers. For our ancestors, numbers bridged humanity to the cosmos. Interestingly, "Yalda" is not originally a Persian word; it derives from the Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic from the Semitic language family, and it means "birth" or "rebirth." For Iranians, Yalda signified the birth of the sun. But whose birth are we really celebrating on this mystical night? To find the answer, we must journey back through time.

Imagine a cold, endless night deep within the Alborz Mountains, under an expanse of complete darkness. In the dawn of that long winter night, a child was born, named Mithra, also known as Mehr. Mithra, born of stone and emerging from the lotus, became the eternal enemy of cold and darkness. Wherever Mithra set foot, warmth and light followed, heralding the promise of winter’s journey toward spring. This is the myth of Mithra’s birth, a legend that eventually spread across the ancient world, resonating with people everywhere.

To honor this birth, ancient communities would plant and celebrate around the pine tree, a symbol of resilience against winter's cold, marking the event with joyous rituals. Yet, what of the sacred numbers associated with these rituals? These numbers are 3, 7, and 12: three for the cycles of time, seven for the levels of heaven, and twelve for the zodiac signs that Earth encounters on its great cosmic journey through the ages.

The word "Cheleh" derives from "chehel," meaning "forty," though it does not necessarily refer to a literal forty days. Traditionally, ancient agrarian calendars divided time based on forty-day cycles, and Cheleh marked two key solar periods in the year—one at the start of summer (Tir month) and one at the start of winter (Day month). Each period is split into a "greater" Cheleh of forty days and a "lesser" Cheleh of twenty days, indicating transitions in climate. Thus, these sacred numbers—3, 7, and 12—symbolize the Earth’s movement through the heavens.
Each season consists of three months, and each year has twelve months. Each era completes three full rotations around the K-Hol to trace the path of the sun through one zodiac constellation, and each Great Age is composed of twelve constellations. However, we observe that the presence of the number seven is subtly hidden, yet this number moves through seven stages or celestial levels, each representing the cosmic structure of our world within its universal journey.

Ultimately, the Mithraic tradition is a celestial one, charting the course of Earth and humankind through the Milky Way, reminding us that we are all part of a vast cosmic journey.