Hello, dear viewers. If you have stumbled upon this blog either intentionally or otherwise then you have come to the right place to spend a few minutes and update yourself about a culture you may have never even heard of or know very little of. In my school days, during our General Knowledge lessons, our teachers would often tell us about religion and it's importance- for most, it is a source of strength to do good deeds based on a given set of spiritual guidelines put forth a long time back. Many have heard about Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Judaism, and countless others. Let this post act as an extra feather in your religious knowledge base to make you aware of another religion- Zoroastrianism.

        

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world with it's roots embedded deep in Iran( formerly known as Persia). A simple Google search is enough to tell the viewers about our origins and brief history so I am simply going to mention the necessary bits. The Iranian prophet Zarathustra, commonly known as Zoroaster, is regarded historically as the founder of this religion. Zoroastrians believe in the wisdom of their lord, AHURA MAZDA. We follow the holy book known as Khorded Avesta which is a collection of all our prayers which accompany our rituals. The young kids in Parsi families usually take part in an important thread ceremony called Navjot, as a first step towards being included in this religion. The thread that we use during our prayers is called a kastii( the spelling may differ in English but this is how it is spelled) and we have our own special cloth which serves as our innerwear called Sudreh( it's light, soft and highly helpful during summers). 

Our places of worship are called fire temples. There are a handful of those in India, including in my hometown Jamshedpur. If the viewers of this blog ever come across other Parsis, you will often find them to be helpful, happy go lucky, food loving people content with whatever they have. A few renowned people who belong to this religion include Ratan Tata,Adi Godrej, Cyrus Poonawaala ,Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry and countless others, who have helped in the development of our country and paved the way towards a brighter future.

In my next post, I will dive deeper into the nooks and crannies of Zoroastrianism , especially the food and trade aspects of our community.