How Do Mandaeans Celebrate Their Sacred Festivals?

Mandaean New Year

Jul 10, 2025 - 13:19

How Do Mandaeans Celebrate Their Sacred Festivals?

The Mandaeans, one of the oldest Gnostic religious communities, maintained their ancient spiritual traditions through migrations and persecutions. Their calendar abounds with rituals that mark the passage of time and reaffirm their connection with nature, light, and purity. These holidays assert a narrative of survival, sacred remembrance, and identity passed on to future generations.

Parwanaya (New Year Festival): The five-day sacred celebration of the Mandaean new year in Liverpool. It is a time for great purification when no work is permitted; prayers and baptisms fill the days and nights. The gates between the earthly and the spiritual worlds are believed to be wide open during this time.

Dehwa Rabba (The Great Feast): This holiday is celebrated immediately after Parwanaya and commemorates the creation and entry of light into the universe. The day also sees family reunions to partake of traditional meals together while paying homage to the Divine Beings of Light.

Light Fasting Days: Unlike other religions, the Mandaean new year festival in Liverpool considers fasting to be symbolic and thus does not fast in the usual sense; anger, conflict, and impurity are simply avoided on such a day. It is a spiritual discipline for cleansing one’s thoughts and actions with the intention of balancing one’s inner self and connecting to the divine.

Dehwa d-Sislam Rabba (Feast of the Great Šišlam): This day is for honouring Sislam, the ambassador of Heaven; prayers and rituals are conducted seeking blessings and peace.

Dehwa Hanina Rba (The Great Feast of Tranquilly): A day of peace and forgiveness, wherein the Mandaean celebrations in Liverpool look inward for harmonising and unifying the soul with the external world.

Dehwa d-Hnina (Feast of Hnina): According to the Mandaean new year celebration in Liverpool, it is a day deeply meaningful to women and children; it highlights love, fertility, and hope for the future.

Final Thoughts

Through these rituals, the continuous thread of light is maintained within the Mandaean religion. Their festive calendar is an archive of living memories, each holiday being a story, a song, and a sacred memory keeping their identity intact through time and distance.