Plentiful pomegranate

This is how the Cambridge dictionary describes a pomegranate: “A round, thick-skinned fruit containing a mass of red seeds and a lot of juice.” A mass of seeds could well be a thousand seeds as the Turkish saying goes: I bought one in the market; it turned out to be a thousand at home! The fruit is comprised of seeds, which is exactly why the pomegranate has always been the symbol of fertility and plenty in our culture.

In Anatolia and in Iran, the pomegranate fruit has a particular significance in regard to the winter solstice and the New Year. The longest night of the year is Yalda night in Iran where it is celebrated all night long with storytelling, reciting poems, telling stories and sharing memories. The roots of celebrating Yalda Night lie in Zoroastrian tradition, as the darkest night of the year was particularly inauspicious and people had to stay together to protect from evil daevas, which were like anti-gods, supernatural entities that would harm people. On this otherwise fearful night, people gathered in groups of friends and neighbors, in some cases the whole village gathered to enforce a psychological sense of unity. Today, the night is spent with the extended family, pretty much like celebrating Christmas in Christian cultures, togetherness is the essence of the long night. It is also about remembrance, the elderly talk about the old times and tell anecdotes and tales, and of course there is that shared joy of being together, endless jokes and funny stories add to the cheerful atmosphere. Endless chitchat talk is almost essential, both for entertainment and for staying awake. After a fine festive meal, everybody stays well past midnight, staying till dawn gives a sense of solidarity against combatting darkness, cementing once again the belief that the light of the sun will shine on longer days, bringing plenty and abundance. Here is when the most symbolic food of Yalda night steps in: The plentiful pomegranate!

The exact same belief is the Nardogan or Nardugan festival of old Turkic traditions. Winter solstice is celebrated as the birth of the sun, exactly in line with the principle of Yalda night, almost as a manifestation of the historicity of Turko-Persian cultural ties. Today, the word refers to winter solstice, and it is a widespread belief that Christian Christmas has its roots in Nardugan festivities. Whether this is true or not is another debate, but we know that all religious celebrations have their roots in pagan or shamanistic beliefs. In Türkiye, the symbol of the day is the pomegranate. That is because of the name of the day, as “nar” is the word for the fruit. However, when we dig into the origins of Nardugan, we see that the day that celebrates the birth of the sun has a direct connection with the sun. In Old Turkic “Nar” means “The Sun,” moreover, the second part of the combined word is “Doğan” or originally “Tugan” which means “to be born” or “to rise”, just like the sun rising, so the name of the day is practically “Newborn Sun!” The symbolic reference to the sun comes from the glistening seeds, the white seeds inside each red kernel seem to shine from deep inside the flesh, and the red hue of the flesh is like the first crimson light of the sun which is about to appear to combat darkness.

Further to the connection attributed to the sun, pomegranate also stands for plenty and abundance in the fields. Of course, the role of the sun in giving fertility to the fields and the crops is prevalent here, but it is also the number of seeds that counts. Not only on winter solstice but in contemporary New Year celebrations it is customary to crush pomegranate at the entrance of the house, spilling seeds signify all the money to be gained in the coming year. Especially Armenian tradesmen used to perform this ritual on the first morning they stepped into their shop, with pomegranate seeds staining the pavements being a common sight in the Grand Bazaar. Armenian culture also shares the belief of attributing abundance to the fruit, the ultimate Armenian Christmas pudding is Anuş Abur, a wheatberry pudding, where wheat grains symbolize abundance and fertility, but it is always decorated with ruby-colored pomegranate seeds, almost like reinforcing the wish for the plenty. A similar pudding Aşure is made for the first ten days of the Islamic calendar by the Muslims in Türkiye, especially in the Alevite tradition, similarly adorned with plenty of pomegranate seeds. Aşure signifies both death and rebirth; new beginnings and hope; fertility and prosperity. It is also referred to as Noah’s Pudding since a legend attributes its origin to Noah’s Ark. Supposedly, one last dish was prepared by whatever was left in the ship, combining handfuls of grains, legumes, nuts and dried fruits, and just upon making that last pudding, the miracle came, and the land appeared. Of course, the attribution to Noah’s Ark has an Armenian connection as well. In both cultures, the miraculous symbolism of the wheat and the pomegranate stems from the same belief system of the shared geography.

Just as the saying goes, one pomegranate will split open to a thousand morsels of juicy bites. When in Türkiye it will be enough to buy only one pomegranate for your Christmas or New Year table, there will be a thousand reasons and traditions to celebrate, all to bring plenty for 2025!