Paitishem

The Zoroastrian community honors the six seasons of the year by celebrating six Gahambars; the word gahambar means "proper season". Each of these six festivals is celebrated for five days, and each honors one of the six material creations: The heaven, water, earth, flora, fauna and man.

Paitishem is the third Gahambar, celebrating the creation of the earth, the end of summer, and the harvesting of crops. It takes place each year from September 12th through the 16th.

1. Recite prayers
2. Make Iranian soup
3. Harvest and preserve

4. Read "The Power of Less"

5. Simplifying my week

1. Recite Prayers:

The first four days of Paitishem are devoted to services, and reciting prayers. Zoroastrians turn towards a flame while praying, which symbolizes the fire of creation and the spiritual flame within each of us-- and so I stand before a candle flame to recite the Ashem Vohu (invocation of Asha) from the Avesta (Zoroastrian Book of Common Prayer).

The Ashem Vohu is a prayer with universal appeal. The word Ashem has many meanings: Law, Order, Beauty, Truth, Righteousness, Purity, Freedom. This one word expresses Divine truth, purity of body and mind, and all the beauty of nature. It's a central idea in Zoroastrianism. 

This prayer is like a mantra, to be chanted slowly. To hear it recited, go to this link.

ashem vohû vahishtem astî

Truth is the best good.

ushtâ astî 

It is happiness.

ushtâ ahmâi hyat ashâi vahishtâi ashem. 

Happiness is to one whose truth (represents) best truth.

2. Make Iranian soup:
On the fifth day of a Gahambar, all the community comes together for a potluck feast, with traditional Persian dishes: Papeta-ma-ghosh, Iranian soup, fried bread, kharu-ghosh, ambakalio, Shirazi cucumber salad, and ajil - a mix of seven different dried fruit and nuts.

The feast is payed for by those who can afford it. Food is prepared together by volunteers, and served by volunteers. Each person either donates food or helps to serve. The feast is a community get-together, when grudges are forgiven and forgotten, and friendships are formed or renewed.

Zoroastrians believe that the smell of good food attracts the Spiritual Beings, and so during the Gahambars spiritual and physical beings are able to eat together.

Today I'm going to make âsh-e-reshte, a delicious, rich, Iranian vegetable noodle soup.

Ingredients:

• 1/4-c. dry lentils
• 1/4-c. pearl barley
• 1 small bunch fresh parsley or cilantro
• 1 carrot
• 1 small potato
• 1 tomato
• salt and pepper
• 1/2-lb. fresh spinach
• 1/4-lb. linguine (or persian reshteh noodles)
• 1 can each garbanzos and red kidney beans
• 1 medium onion
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint
• 1 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 c. plain yogurt

(Yield: 4-5 servings)

1- Pick over and rinse the dried lentils. Cover with 2 c. water and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook the barley in another pot, covered with water, for about 30 minutes.

2- Meanwhile, clean the parsley and chop finely. Put into a soup pot with 4 c. water. Peel and chop carrot, potato & tomato (and really any veggies you have on hand - I'm using green beans). Add veggies with salt and pepper. Simmer 20 minutes.

3- Clean and chop the spinach and add to the soup pot. Break the noodles into 2-inch pieces and add to the pot. Simmer until noodles are cooked.

4- Slice the onions and fry in a little oil until they turn golden brown. Add the mint and turmeric, stir, and set aside.

5- When the noodles are cooked, add lentils, beans, barley, and onions to the soup pot; simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste for seasoning. Place âsh-e in bowls and stir in yogurt.

3. Harvest and preserve:

The gahambars are seasonal festivals that provide an opportunity for the whole village to get together to share the labor required to finish the tasks of the season; for Paitishem that is the harvest.

I've got plenty to harvest, and this week I'll continue to preserve:

• Blanch and freeze green beans
• Freeze tomatoes
• Pickle some beets
• Braid my onions
• Freeze more rhubarb

4. Read "The Power of Less":

I recently bought this little book by Leo Babauta, who hosts the Zen Habits blog. I bought it because simplifying is a favorite topic of mine, one I long for and keep trying to perfect.

So today I'm starting with Chapter Three: Choosing the Essential, and Simplifying. As he says, you have to choose the essential before you simplify. "Once you know what is essential you can reduce your projects, your tasks, your stream of incoming information, your commitments, your clutter. You just have to eliminate everything that's not essential." 

Sounds simple- yes? 

He has a series of questions to ask yourself to decide what is essential:

1. What are your values (the principles you want to live by)?
2. What are your goals? 
3. What do you love?
4. What's important to you?
5. What has the biggest impact? (This is useful when choosing between several things.)
6. What has the most long-term value?
7. Which do you need and which are nonessential wants?
8. What else can you eliminate as non-essential?

5. Simplifying my week:

Every Thursday I make a list of the tasks for the following week. I look at my goals for the month and select the next steps; I add in meetings, social events and holidays, and I try to make it a reasonable list. I always fail - I always have higher expectations than are reasonable. And when reality hits I almost always choose to complete my "obligations" over creativity, home and garden tasks.

My obligations - such as committee work and childcare - are important, and they have a big impact, but so are my home, my garden and my creative projects. How do I resolve this?

One idea is to identify ways to accomplish other important tasks while also doing childcare: For example- plan a few house and garden chores that the boys can actually help with, such as painting a windowsill and harvesting tomatoes, and at least one creative task each week that I can do with the boys.

Another idea is to simplify my committee obligations so they take less time: Re-use blog posts, delegate a little more often, and choose fewer tasks per week.