Marnow fast (the three days of Khawankar) · Marnow

Culture of origin: Yarsan · Cultural

Holiday sources: Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq)

The Marnow fast is kept every year for three days, in memory of the three days and nights that Sultan Sahak and his companions spent besieged by their enemies, without food or water, in Marnow, a cave on Mount Shindar on the Iran–Iraq border in Kermanshah province ("mar" means cave in Kurdish, Laki and Lori). For the followers of the faith the fast is obligatory. By the Yarsan's holy book, the Daftar, it begins on the twelfth day of the lunar month that falls in the chelleh of the Kurdish winter, which always opens on 30 Mehr, so it moves between the end of Mehr and the end of Aban. The evening before the first day is the night of intention (niyat), and the fast ends with the Feast of Khawankar.