Increasing Popularity of Christmas Celebration Among Non-Christians in Iran
Observers have long said that the popularity of the Christian Christmas celebration is increasing among non-Christian Iranians. A conservative Iranian media outlet has also “based on research” reached the same conclusion regarding the popularity of Christmas trees among non-Christians.
On Wednesday, the 4th of Dey (December 25), the Fars News Agency published a pictorial report on the popularity of Christmas celebration in Iran.
The report stated: “Based on research, 90 percent of Christmas tree buyers are not Christian, and it is said that approximately six billion tomans worth of Christmas trees have been sold in Tehran in recent days.”
In this news agency’s report, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, it is not clear who or which institution conducted this research.
“A Profitable Trade”
The same “research” by Fars News Agency attributed one of the reasons for the great popularity of the largest Christian celebration in the Islamic Republic, writing: “Celebrity photos with Christmas trees and New Year greetings have made the culture of the Western New Year so much alive in recent years that the sale of Christmas trees has become a new and profitable business.”
Christmas trees are sold by online sellers at an average price between 100,000 to 500,000 tomans. Some reports indicate sales of trees worth one to five million tomans.
The semi-official Iranian news agency continued its report by considering only Iranian Armenians and wrote: “The population of Armenians in Iran is between 80,000 to 120,000 people, and it does not seem that this multi-billion toman turnover from Christmas tree sales in Iran is limited only to the Armenian population and other Christian denominations that have a negligible population compared to Armenians.”
The international Christian organization “Open Doors” estimates the population of Christians in Iran at 475,000 people.
Roots in Mithraism?
In Germany, the birthday of Jesus Christ, the prophet of Christians, was set on December 24.
According to Fars News Agency, “Some Christians in Iran celebrate Christmas on December 25 and New Year on January 1, but Armenians celebrate Christmas simultaneously with the Epiphany on January 6.”
Some researchers have traced the roots of Christmas to the Mithraic religion in ancient Iran, believing that the predecessors of Christmas were taken from Yalda. However, this religion was prevalent during the pre-Christian period in the ancient Roman Empire. Temples of Mithras in Rome witnessed their active presence in the distant past.
Fars in its report called the Yalda night a celebration that is “full of cultural capacity for the expansion of Iranian-Islamic culture.”
Source: DW
