20120311 Z Parsi Navjote and Irani Sedreh Pushi Ceremonies
North American Zoroastrian Religious Tele – Class –
Sunday March 11 2012 11 AM (EDST)
Ervad Soli P. Dastur
A Zoroastrian Religion Class was held by Telephone on March 11th2012 by Ervad Soli P. Dastur from his home, Hira Villa, in Sarasota, Florida. About 41+ people joined in by calling a Tele-meeting phone number. The people were from both Canada and USA, from NY to Dallas, Montreal to Miami. The class material was a PowerPoint Presentation on The Zoroastrian Parsi Navjote & Irani Sedreh Pushi Ceremonies. We followed Dr. J. J. Modi’s famous book: The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees which is now available on Internet at: http://www.avesta.org/ritual/rcc.htm, thanks to my very good friend Joseph Peterson. We also introduced the excellent NAMC book – Understanding and Practice of Navjote and Wedding Ceremonies by our own Mobeds Jehan Bagli and Adi Unwalla. We also introduced Roshan Bharucha’s book on Parsi Wedding, Navjote & Other Traditions. A new book by my own nephew, Ervad Cyrus Dastoor of Frohar Foundation – Zoroastrian Saga – was also introduced. We also demonstrated Kusti weaving using snapshots from the excellent video – The Sacred Cincture The Kushti – sponsored by FEZANA under the leadership of Arnavaz Sethna of Houston and put together by The Frohar Films under the direction of Ervad Cyrus Dastoor.
Class Material Covered
The class covered the details of Navjote and Sedreh Pushi Ceremonies from initial preparations to the actual performance of ceremonies like Nahan, Aachhoo Michhoo, Navjote Proper with Sudreh and Kusti investitures, final Tandoorasti Benediction, and final dressing up of the child and the ensuing music and dinner.
For the Sedreh Pushi Ceremony, we approached my very good friend and tutor Dasturji Mobed Mehraban Firouzgary of Tehran. He sent us a Persian document on Sedreh Pushi which with the excellent help from Farzad Aidun of Washington DC was translated in English and used in this class. We want to thank Dasturji and Farzad for their help, as well as Behram Pastakia for referring us to Farzad.
Finally, as it is becoming our custom, the permanent question: “We do not understand what we are praying in our daily prayers” was answered by suggesting some alternatives. The final prayer in English, from Dr. Dhalla’s book: Homage Unto Ahura Mazda: “The Family Prayer”, was recited by all together ending with our signature Zoroastrian greeting of: “Hamaa Zor, Hamaa Asho Bade” (May we be united in righteousness) performed by all attending the Class, a cyber Hamaa Zor all over North America!
The PowerPoint Presentation slides and all documents covering Navjote Ceremony, its prayers, items required, etc. were sent out to all participants ahead of time. In most homes, families gathered in front of their computers following slides of this presentation as I spoke about them from my home. These files are attached to this message.
Please note that the next Tele Class will be on Sunday April 22nd and due to popular demand we will have a Questions and Answers Class. The questions will be sent to me by participants, deadline set to April 1. I will collect them, select some so as to cover one hour Class duration and send them out with my answers to all participants ahead of time. Hope you all can join us in this Tele Class.
We also request all of you to suggest what topics we should cover in the next Tele Classes.
20120311 NA Zoroastrian Religious Tele Class Summary
20120311 NA Tele Class Ceremonies 002
Tele Class 7th Prayer Dhalla Homage Unto Ahura Mazda background
Navjote Prayers with translations
Navjote Ceremony Prayers Step By Step
Sedreh Pushi Ceremony Farzad Aidun Translation