Celebrating Yalda with Shahmaran: Winter Solstice, Grief, and Liberation in the Iranian Diaspora cover art

Celebrating Yalda with Shahmaran: Winter Solstice, Grief, and Liberation in the Iranian Diaspora

Celebrating Yalda with Shahmaran: Winter Solstice, Grief, and Liberation in the Iranian Diaspora

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 In this episode of Halva for the Heart, I turn toward Shab-e Yalda, the ancient Iranian winter solstice holiday, and reflect on what it offers us as people living, grieving, and resisting in diaspora. I explore Yalda as a collective vigil through the longest night of the year, and how it initiates Chelleh-ye Bozorg: the 40 coldest, darkest days that mirror grief cycles, mourning traditions, and the necessity of communal care. Through the mythology of Shahmaran, the Kurdish queen of serpents, I reflect on winter as a sacred time for collapse, inner death work, and transformation personally, collectively, and politically.

In this episode, you’ll hear:
  • what Shab-e Yalda and Chelleh-ye Bozorg teach us about grief and survival
  • how Yalda functions as a vigil and a form of ancestral death work
  • why Shahmaran’s underground cavern mirrors the womb/tomb space of grief
  • how Iranian mourning traditions align with seasonal cycles
  • why rest, collapse, and community care are essential for sustainable liberation
  • how Yalda invites solidarity, hope, and resistance in dark times


🌑 This episode is an invitation to soften into the darkness, gather in community, and trust that the sun—and liberation—will return.

Links:
📘 Shab-e Yalda Guidebook
🐍 The Omi Collective’s Shahmaran Azadi Zine & Talisman
❤️‍🩹 Join us in Dard-e Del
🗝️ Narinder Bazen's concept of Inner-Facing Death Work

If you'd like to share what this episode brought up for you...
  • Leave me a 90 second voice note
  • Message me on Instagram
  • Send me an email
Learn more about my work at my website www.hafezdeathcare.com
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter

🎵 Theme song: 'Lullaby' by Iranian oud player Negâr Boubân
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.