The 3rd Salgreh of the Zoroastrian Association of California‘s Atash Kadeh was celebrated with great religious fervor on November 13, 2019

A maachi was offered at all five gehs. Two of which were Hama Anjuman Machis, of one kg each of pure Sandalwood, offered to the holy fire in Havan and Aiwishruthem gehs. Followed by a Hama Anjuman Jashan performed by Ervads Zarrir Bhandara and Jal Birdy.

After the Jashan a very informative and interactive talk on fire was delivered by Ervad Zarrir Bhandara, in which he briefly gave the history of the enthronement of the fire. Stating that 3 days and nights before the opening of the Atash Kadeh, under the guidance of Dasturji Dr. Kotwal, the Vendidad Sadeh and 6 Bajs were performed on the fire that was burning in our house for the last ten years and from that same fire this Padshah was enthroned.

He then explained the significance of offering the Machi to the Padshah. Machi comes from a word Manch, which means a throne. The first two pieces are the base of the throne, the next two are seat, then the arm rest and finally the backrest. Furthermore, he asked the gathering “are we fire-worshippers or do we worship God through fire? We worship the ceremoniously enthroned fires namely the Atashbehram, Attash Adran and Atash Dadgah as son of Ahura Mazda. On the other hand if you say we worship God through fire, that is true too as we revere all God’s creations and that God’s spark/energy is present in all living beings and the manifestation of that energy is fire.” At the conclusion he thanked all the attendees, the ZAC committee for providing dinner.

After that birthday cake was cut by Ervads Jal Birdy and Zarrir Bhandara.