Cello, harp and rhythmic dance echoed in the VAPA center in uptown Charlotte Thursday night as people gathered to celebrate an ancient Persian festival marking the winter solstice.
At the Nine Eighteen Nine studio in the Teal Event Space at the VAPA center, around 50 people celebrated “Shabe Yalda,” or “Yalda Night,” a festival marking the end of the longest night of the year. People danced, performed songs, enjoyed food and mingled.
The word Yalda means birth in Farsi, and the event symbolizes a rebirth of the sun.
Data scientist Masoud Sobhani is a co-organizer of the event.
“The idea behind that is just that we are celebrating that the sun, the light, is defeating darkness,” Sobhani said. “We try to emphasize that tonight, in the event that we are holding tonight, is just, you know, there are a lot of nights that’s long in your life, but there's a hope after that, so that’s the idea behind this Yalda night and I think that’s the significant part of this.”
Traditionally, Yalda Night is a family-oriented event where people gather together, read poetry, eat and share stories. The celebration has roots in ancient Zoroastrian traditions that date back thousands of years.
A centerpiece or focal point of the event is the Yalda table. Behzad Riazi, co-organizer and artist at the VAPA center, describes the Yalda table as a Christmas tree for Iranians.
On the left side of the room, the Yalda table featured watermelon, pomegranates, nuts and a poetry book from the Iranian poet Hafez. Riazi said the color red is an important symbol on the Yalda table.
“So what you see is a joy of life, fire, light, red, passion, love,” Riazi said.
Organizers Riazi and Sobhani said it was important to host a Yalda event not just for Iranians. The duo sought out non-Iranian performers and performers from other cultural backgrounds to join the festivity.
“We really like to offer it to a bigger community, because I feel like most Yalda events are only for Persians, and I just wanted to break this cocoon and invite people from other cultures to come to our events,” Riazi said.
Adam Refaey is a fourteen-year-old cellist. He’s been playing since he was 4 years old and said this was the first he heard of Yalda night. He was excited to perform and he chose the pieces he played to fit the occasion.
“The pieces that I chose were really based off of moving from the night to day or dusk to dawn, whatever you want to call it,” Refaey said. “Me and my mom came up with four songs, with the last song being a combination of two songs to get you moving from a dark piece to a light piece.”
The Yalda Night event is the sixth event for the “Charlestaan” organization that Riazi and Sobhani formed this past May.
The name “Charlestaan” holds an important significance to Riazi and Sobhani.
“We created this name together from two words: Charlotte and Dastan, which means tales in Persian language,” Riazi said. “We also have an ancient name for downtown, in ancient Persian cities, they used to call it Shahristan. So, playing with Shahristan, Charlotte, Dastan, we mixed up and created this name together, yeah, because we really like storytelling and our events take place at the heart of Charlotte.”
The group has also hosted artist conversations, an Iranian documentary screening, discussions on the immigrant experience, and programs exploring the history of Charlotte’s “Queen City” nickname.
Charlestaan aims to host an event every month and is in the process of creating events for the Persian New Year in March.
