At the initiative of the respected Leader of the Nation, the Founder of Peace and National Unity, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon, the Holiday Sada is officially celebrated annually on January 30 in our country. Holiday Sada is also one of the ancient holidays of the Aryan peoples. The essence of the Sada’s holiday is to victory of light above darkness, warmth over cold and good over evil.
The main goal of the Sada holiday is respect for light, lighting and warmth. In empirical stories, it is given that the burning of the fire of the nations called for spring, heat and light. The goal of the people in its celebration was the beginning of preparation for field work and gardening. On the days of this holiday, the farmers were equipped with Earth, prepared seeds, agricultural equipment. The holiday was celebrated solemnly, magnificent and accompanied by burning fires, as it existed belief that the stronger the flame of fires, the Earth in the coming year will be fertile.
The word Sada is taken from a numeral hundred covering 50 nights and 50 days before the arrival of Navruz. As our famous scientist Aburayhan Beruni believed, our ancestors thought the day and night separately. Sada is the celebration of the leaving winter and spring approximation news.
Sada is one of the oldest seasonal celebrations of Aryan farmers, the most important Iranian and Tajik winter festival which are celebrated at end of the 30th and the beginning of the 31st of January of the New Year. Legends have it that King Hushang, the 2nd king of the mythological Pishdadian dynasty, established the Sadeh tradition. It is said that once Hushang was climbing a mountain when all of a sudden he saw a snake and wanted to hit it with a stone. When he threw the stone, it fell on another stone and since they were both flint stones, fire broke out and the snake escaped. This way he discovered how to light a fire. Hushang cheered up and praised God who revealed to him the secret of lighting a fire. Then he announced: “This is a light from God. So we must admire it”.
During the celebration, people read excerpts from the Avesta, distributed food and drinks. The Persian thinker Abu Rayhan Biruni described the passage of this holiday: “The bonfire had to burn all night. In the morning of the next day, women came to the fire and took a few more burning branches to their home so that in the end every house was consecrated by holy fire”.
Biruni noted that in the days of celebration Sada, they distributed food prepared on the eve of Sada to remember the memory of died.
As the Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmon noted in his message to Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan “The Tajik nation, having rich and ancient traditions, customs and culture, has made a worthy contribution to the development of world civilization. Our good traditions and national holidays, such as Navruz, Mehrgon, Sada, have played a huge role in the promotion of morality and a creative spiritual world over a long historical period”. It is worthy of pride that the Leader of the Nation declared them official national holidays, which are celebrated with a special, original celebration.
Today, the holiday is celebrated throughout Tajikistan, as well as in Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other countries where Tajik and Persian-speaking peoples live. Thanks to the State Independence of the Republic of Tajikistan, this ancient national holiday was revived and is widely celebrated every year, because these holidays are a reminder from our ancient ancestors, and the Tajik people protect them as an integral part of its multifaceted cultural memory and as a moral precious memory of reproduction.
