Dehwa Rabba

Culture of origin: Mandaean · Cultural

Holiday sources: Iran · Mandaeism

Dehwa Rabba ("Great Feast") is the Mandaean New Year, the first day of Dowla, the first month, and opens a seven-day festival. On its eve, Kanshi u-Zahli, priests spend the day in prayer and baptism and families perform ritual immersion. At sunset Mandaeans stay in their homes for 36 hours, believing the guardian spirits have left the world, and come out only at noon on 2 Dowla. During that time it is inauspicious to kill any animal, even an insect.