Gahambars
Gahambar means 'full time', or 'proper season'. Gahambars is a Parsi festival. Gahambar is marked in honour of Sky, Waters, Earth, Plants, Cattle and Man. There are six gahambars in a year and each of these gahambars spans for five days.
A festival to pay tributes to God and Creation, Gahambars festival is a community festival that reinforces feelings of brotherhood. Parsis are also reminded about the good deeds and their roots on Gahambars.
Deeds of a true Parsi are; radih or being charitable, rastih or being truthful, celebrating the Gahambars, observing a three-day ceremony after death, worshipping god, building lodgings for the poor, and wishing everyone well.
Origin
Gahambars were originally agricultural in nature, but as Zoroastrianism spread far and wide, assumed a religious dimension.
King Jamshed was the first person to observe this festival. Gahamabar has become an important community feasts by all Parsis all over the world.
Tributes are paid to the phases or elements responsible for the creation of the world. Each of the six phases - heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man - is associated with one Gahambar, and is celebrated over five days.
On the first four days of Gahambars Festival, four liturgical services are performed. The fifth day is reserved for communal interaction. Prayers of love and praise are held in remembrance of one's ancestors in a benediction ceremony called Afrin.
In the Baj prayers, the yaztas, or angels, and the fravashis are honoured followed by the main Parsi rite, Yasna. Pavi is the last of the four customs for social service and the priests and faithful pray together.
On the fifth day of Gahambar, a solemn feast is organised where, anyone can either donate or serve at the feast. Each day of a year is a day under the supervision of an angel while a festival day is cared by a group of angels.
First Gahambar comes around on the eleventh day of Parsi month 'Ardibenesh', the second on eleventh of 'Tir', the third on twenty-sixth of 'Shehnever', the fourth on the twenty-sixth of 'Meher', the fifth on sixteenth of 'Dai' and the sixth on the first of 'Gatha'. Traditionally, Gahambars are occasions of feasting and get-togethers.
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