Story of a Relationship
The 3rd item of the Couple series.
Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, through later folk traditions, has become a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world.
In Iran, we also have a celebration that like Valentine, is a day of love.
Sepandārmazgān (Persian: سپندارمذگان) or Espandegān (اسپندگان), is an ancient Iranian day of women with Zoroastrian roots dating back to the first Persian Empire, the Achaemenid Empire. This day is dedicated to Spənta Ārmaiti (Avestan for “Holy Devotion”, Spandārmad in Middle Persian, Persian: سپندارمذ Spendārmad or Sepandarmaz), the Amesha Spenta who is given the domain of “earth”. The date of the festival as observed in the Sassanid era was on the 5th day of the month Spandarmad (February 23), Because in ancient times the months were 30 days, now that a number of months have become 31 days, this celebration and occasion takes place on February 18. When the name of the day and the month of the day were the same, a “name-feast” celebration was always done. According to the testimony of al-Biruni, in the 11th century CE there was a festival when the names of the day and the month were the same. The deity Spandarmad protected the Earth and the “good, chaste and beneficent wife who loves her husband”. According to him, the festival used to be dedicated to women, and men would make them “liberal presents.[wikipedia]
In this artwork, I have shown that Qajar royal couple are together on the day of love.
