The research paper published by IJSER journal is about Some Believes about the Rain and Rainnig in Iran (Case Study Lamerd City South of Iran) 1
ISSN 2229-5518
(Only author names, for other information use the space provided at the bottom (left side) of first page or last page. Don‟t superscript numbers for authors ) Abstract— This article study the believes about rain in south of Iran, where the climate is arid and hot. Rain and raining has constant ly played a key role in Iran’s history, both in people’s lives, attitude, believes and in the ruling system of governments in various periods of time. Nearly every aspect of Iranians’ believes was under direct or indirect impact of the rate of rain. This is an existing fact easily observed in every aspect of Iranians’ lives. In general, Iran has an arid climate especially in south, where, summers are dry and hot. In this region religious concepts are used to help the rain to be poured. They swear God to his prophet's name and sanctity Mohammad, for rain to be poured. This request says to God if rain does not pour, then it makes people very upset and sad while their animals are lost. Index
Terms— Rain, Believes, Lamerd, Climate, South of Iran, Iran.
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here are lots of testimonies to air forecast. In past, they were informed of raining by some signs and some signals. in these areas, blowing of the Ghose wind was needed for
raining. Wind blowed from east or eastern north to west and it caused the rainy clouds in winter. in one of the believes that was told in a poem form predicted if the Ghose wind was blowing in the morning and before noon, it was not useful and that was caused the scattered clouds .but if Ghose wind blowed in the afternoon and evening it caused rain. This rain caused the wheat to be grown and fertilized and bread be- come abundant.
The kush (Ghose) wind of the morning Hold the walking stick and go begging The kush(Ghose) wind of the evening
They believed if a person wore clothes side out mistakenly
and presented in public, it might rain. In most believes , there was a relationship between raining and wrong side out clothes. But the purpose was not clear. In another belief, if a bride ate the end of pot, at her wedding party it might rain. Sometimes the stars and the sky can be helpful to predict the wind and rain. For example the halo of the moon , was the
symbol of blowing the wind and raining, or when the eclipse
of the sun happened , that year was unlucky and maybe the
famine and the drought happened.
Sometimes the animals and the birds were helpful to pre-
dict the rain. In some believes when the animals , especially
wild animals made lots of noise , the wind or rain and/or war
and fight might happen. Another sign of raining was the bark-
ing of dogs at night. Cock‟s crow untimely, was the symbol of
storm. Or when the sky was cloudy and at that time the hen flapped the wings, it might rain. In another belief the flying of a flight group of birds to the west side was the sign of rain. Since the clouds that might cause rain, appeared in west side, so the birds flew to welcome the clouds and rain. Some be- lieves were joined to religious believes. They believed, at the time of thunder and lightning, Emam ali was moving on the clouds by his horse.
During the rain, the prediction of the amount of rain was done too. They believed if the first rain of the year was accom- panied by the thunder and lightning, that year would have
less rain. Or if the number of sparrows swimming in the water at the time of raining, it was the sign of the duration of rain. Or if the drops of rain caused the bubble, they believed the rain continued severely. In most believes, Saturday had a spe- cial place. Since in Iranian calendar, the week starts with Sat- urday and they believed if something happened in this day, it needed a partner( another Saturday) which accompanied it. In the case of raining was exactly the same. According to this believe, if it rained on Saturday, the rain continued for 7 days. It means the continuation of raining in other days was because of Saturday.
They believed if at the time of funeral procession, rain met the dead body, the rain stopped for forty days. Because of this
, they tried to bury the dead body after it stopped. Because lamerd area has a little raining , this believe is valid now and some people pay attention to this belief now . Because of less rain and the long time distance between two rain that might happen they related this time distance to the accident of rain and dead body. It mean they connected the dead of human to the dead of rain and to remove the evil spirit and the death,
40 days was needed to have rain again and got rid of the bad spirit . They believed if in winter and fall , two swallows were together , that year was a very good year in raining. But if there was one swallow, famine might happen that year. The relationship between rain, growth and birds had an old root. this believe if two sparrows or cowherd(in local dialect it mean the bird which pastured the cows. or the bird which caused rain and was the symbol of growth and greenery and then resulted in pasturing the cows) were together that year certainly it rained and that year was abundant and plentiful from an agricultural point.
Iran climate is semidried in most areas and the measure of
rain is low. Because of this the human who lived in this land
invented different methods to save and use water in a benefit
way. Using the subterranean canal in desert areas and/or build-
ing the dam on the route of river and making the pond or store
water are some examples. But sometimes in these areas even the
low rain is stopped completely and maybe for one or several
IJSER © 2012
The research paper published by IJSER journal is about Some Believes about the Rain and Rainnig in Iran (Case Study Lamerd City South of Iran) 2
ISSN 2229-5518
years there is no rain. In this case people of Iran take advantage of different ways to preserve against the drought. People have two different gods for rain and drought in their believe. When the battle happen between these two gods may one of them overcome another one and drought or rain may happen. In ad- dition to this, for every element that cause the rain they consider a god. for example, could thunder and lightning, thunderbolt and wind for each of them, one god is supposed sometimes because the human‟s bad action who live on the earth, the god of rain may become angry and prevent to rain and as a result the god of drought has a chance to control the earth. The people did lots of different activities to persuade the god of rain and ask him for forgiveness and rain.
Rain, drought and related actions often exist in all old civili-
zations and as a result the civilizations have influence on each
other. One time in Beinonnahrain drought was happened, when
Ishtar(the god of love and productivity , inana) was under land,
human, animal and plant were sterilized. The land was empty
of kindness and productivity and the world was chaotic. People
appeal to the gods for help and helpless gods went to the water
and wisdom and reason gods for help and they sent a messen-
ger to Ishtar. Ishtar only under one condition is ready to return
which the god promised him that Tamuz ( the symbol of sum-
mer sunshine ) would be came back in springs. The god ac-
cepted his request and Ishtar moved ahead to the upper world. First of all, to ann‟s command, they pour water over him to get rid of diseases and pains. He should pass seven gates when he came back. In each gather, parts of clothes or ornament things
that they took these things from him, was given back and he arrived on the land at last. Tamuz is with him and is spring. Happiness and productivity , love freshness are coming back. But tamuz cannot stay in upper world (on the earth) like the lasting Ishtar and must go back to the under land for a part of year. In spring which tamuz is on the land,Ishtar because of tamuz love change the land and make it fresh and productive
.in the returning time to the under land , the world become cold and dead.
In ancient Greece , the famine and drought surrounded the
world and the people are afraid and ask the gods for help. And
the gods are helpless so they send someone to the Demeter (the
god of productivity of the plants , the symbol of wheat and
agricultural production ) and after begging the gods. Demeter
accepted to come back to the earth under the condition of giving
back his daughter to him . There are many cases, which show ,
lots of droughts happened in ancient Iran and people did lots of
activities defeat against it . In Iran Tishtar god in the sky is the
president of heavenly rain and water. Epoosh monster , is the
dry monster that stops raining so tishtar the god of rain , has a
great battle with him to make him escape . in this battle , ever- mazd give tishtar the god of rain , give ten young man‟ ,ten ca- mel‟s ,ten young bull‟s and ten mountain‟s power .epoosh mon- ster was afraid and escaped and because tishtar wanted the rain
with big drops ,so the monster assistant that is named spanjgir
monster comes . ahoorayi „ force which exist in clouds burst into
flames with tishtar „s mace strock,And spanjgir monster roared with fear and became extinct (thunder and lightning).
It is said, it didn‟t rain in Iran for a long time. But when Jam- shid became king in this day (Norouz) after a long prieod of
drought it rained. people take it as a good omen and threw the rain water over each other and they kept this tradition as a sign of gratitude to Norouz and they celebrate this day. Abou Rei- han Birouni in Asar Albaghieh told that in Norouz people threw water to each other. Some told because there was no rain for a long time, suddenly it rained severely and people make a gift looked upon was bringing good luck so throw water to each other and it became a tradition. It is said that in ancient Iran, it was tradition that people washed themselves at the Norouz‟ morning moment and go into the ponds and sometimes they took the current water with themselves to remove the calamity. There is a relationship between throwing water and Jamshid fable about making drain and subterranean canal in this day and another fable that after a long drought in Jamshid‟s periods, it rained. While wearing their clothes upside down, they ask forgiveness and go out of the village to pray and read the poem with following contents:
God, I swear you to Ahmad right or Mohammad sanctity, God, I am painful, God, my chest is torn because of sorrow, God you pour the rain, The black cloud is roaring and coming to the
Tehran city, I swear you to the death of black animal, Such a tall gryphon, Hass fallen in the large cracks of the land, God you pour the rain, When it rains again,Haystack gets filled with straw, God you pour the rain, in the day and night.
In this work religious concepts are used to help the rain to be poured. They swear God to his prophet's name and sanctity, Mohammad, for rain to be poured. This request says to God if rain does not pour, then it makes people very upset and sad while their animals are lost. Also in some areas of the country like Narman village, people suddenly attack a person and throw the donkey blanket over his head and they move in the alleys while making a lot of noise and bit him by stick in order to other people feel feared of his noise and cause raining. In the Eshkanan district people go to the mountains and make soup and Halim and distribute among people while singing this poem:
God you pour the rain, Wheat became worthless, Husband
became resent to the woman, We did not divorce our wives,
God you pour the rain, White cow has laid its head on the
ground, God you pour the rain, Wet wheat price became
doubled, It prices got to the gold price, God you pour the rain.
People in some districts during the drought put some pots next to each other in order to be rained as if they want to make too much noise to awake the rain God and remember him that it is a longtime that has not been rained. Some acts of asking for rain is done by children. Those children who are pure and innocent. In one of the games that children play in fact there is a kind of tradition or belief in asking God for rain. Since there is a low rainfall in this area, therefore this game will be played when the sky becomes cloudy and before raining. A group of children hold a stick while running to the people's house and ask then for something to eat. While running, they hit the stick to the ground and then lift it again and whisper this poem:
God you pour the rain, Group of sinners, in the large
families.
It means that those families who are among sinner groups: It
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The research paper published by IJSER journal is about Some Believes about the Rain and Rainnig in Iran (Case Study Lamerd City South of Iran) 3
ISSN 2229-5518
is due to your sins that there is no rain. So give us something as charity, and then it will rain. In some districts the hemistich "gorohe gonah kar "(Group of sinners) is read wrongly as "Dasteye gole karron" or " Dasteye kolang karoon" that is not the correct form.Its correct form is " Dasteye gonah karron"( Group of sinners)that indicates the traditional and religious concept of not raining due to sinners group.This game may be played just two or three times in a year and sometimes it may not be played for several continuous years due to drought.In this game the reason of not raining is a group of sinner people. Therefore people are asked to pay charity as atonement of their sins.
Throwing money in running water is considered as some- thing that leads to raining. Money is a sign of blessing and wealth. Probably throwing money in the water will returns blessing to the money. A bless which will be back to the ground through raining. Today also in most parts of Iran people throw coins in the water and then avow for something. People hang the waterskin in the gutter in order to be rained. Probably by hanging the skin water which is used for water supply, they say to sky and rain God that this waterskin is thirsty and waits for water from sky. In some districts people pour water in the dale and then stand und it and wait water to be poured on the head. Probably this tradition of standing under the dale and pouring water is related to the old traditions about water that today is changed a little. Among rituals of Caucasian city with Iranian race it is quoted that in Norooz people lift a jug of water and bring it home later and then go to the mill and put the sweeping for seven times on their head , the sweeping by which the millstone is cleaned. Or they will go to the mill before sun rising and passed the path under the mill gutter for seven times and remove a jug of water from mill to use it for making the Norooz bread.Also they should be totally silent during this path
.(Amozegar, 2008).May be the reason for going under the mill
dale is the relationship between mill , wheat and agricultural
products with rain falling that people tried to connect theses
several sacred gifts together in order to be rained and have a high-yielding wheat in the new year .Probably standing under the gutter and pouring water from the above part of the gutter for coping with drought is the remained form of this tradition
which is changed a little.
Also sometimes too much raining causes some destructions
and loses. Therefore people do several actions in order to stop it
in order to reduce the destructive power of rain falling. In one
of these actions to stop raining the first children of the family
should put his buttocks in the rain water. In this way due to
ingratitude to the rain, God will get angry and rain falling will be stopped. This shows the belief of sacred water. However when this sacred water disobeys and causes some destructions then they are forced to disobey water to reduce its destructions.
In another action in order to stop raining they put the praying stone in the water. Most people do not put it in the water for its sanctity. Praying stone is a sign that is used in religious rituals or during praying which is sacred. Here it will be used in order to prevent bad events. Another method in order to stop raining is to put half-burnt firewood under the rain falling. It is believed
that jays jays voice of the rain leads to rain to be stopped.
In conclution this article study the believes about rain in
south of Iran, where the climate is arid and hot. Rain and rain-
ing has constantly played a key role in Iran‟s history, both in
people‟s lives, attitude, believes and in the ruling system of
governments in various periods of time. Nearly every aspect of Iranians‟ believes was under direct or indirect impact of the rate of rain. This is an existing fact easily observed in every aspect of Iranians‟ lives. In general, Iran has an arid climate especially in south, where, summers are dry and hot. In this region religious concepts are used to help the rain to be poured. They swear God to his prophet's name and sanctity, Mohammad, for rain to be poured. This request says to God if rain does not pour, then it makes people very upset and sad while their animals are lost.
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[3] A. Eghtedari. 1992). “Old Larestand and Larestan culture,” (2 th ed).
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[4] K. Mansoorfar. (2007). “Statistic in social science”. Tehran, Payame -
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