Gahanbars  are six seasonal thanksgiving festivals or high feasts when Zoroastrians assemble to eat and share food communally. They are joyous occasions at which rich and poor met together, new friendships are formed and old disputes resolved. While each gahanbar traditionally spans five days, nowadays it is the last day that is usually observed. 

Gahanbars are a demonstration of beliefs, principles and values in action and are an expression of piety in thought, word and deed.  

The food stuffs are contributed anonymously according to a person or family's means. Many community members volunteer to prepare the food, prepare for the occasion and serve the meals - without regard to status. During the meal, everyone sits together and partakes of the same food. The customs are an expression of egalitarian communal togetherness. The free and equal sharing of food with everyone, the environment of togetherness, goodwill and sharing - all serve to help build and strengthen the community.

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Name & Meaning

The books of Yasna at 1.9 and Visperad at 1.2 mention the names of the six different gahanbars/gahanbars in connection with the "yairya" [said to stem from the Avestan "yare" meaning a (solar) year and which might mean annual (feasts)] and with the saredhaeibyo, the solar year or seasons. We find the word "gasanbar" in Pahlavi, Middle Persian texts. The Lesser and Greater Bundahishnsat 25.1 mention the division of the year into the period of the six gahambars and calls them "gas", divisions (some translate as "seasons"), of the religious calendar. 

Some derive Gahanbar from gah-anbar meaning time-gathering, the time for gathering (food and people) or assembly-time. Gahs or Gas are the periods into which a day is divided. It could also be taken to mean the periods into which a cycle of time such as a day, a month or a year is divided. For the purposes of seasons, a year is divided into seasons (fasl) or harvest times (gahanbars). 

Yet others take the name Gahanbar to be derived from gah-anbar or gah-ambar meaning time-for-storage in Persian. The name therefore signifies the period for storing food (or accessing stored food in winter). The dried fruits and nuts, called lorg in Persian, are distributed and collected by the assembly for storage. 

Middle Persian Pahlavi texts such as the Shayest Na-Shayest at 12.31, Sad-Dar at 6.1-2, the Vohuman Yasht at 2.45, and the Menog-i Kharad (Spirit of Wisdom) at chapter 4, speak to the observance of the Gahanbars as an act of piety. The Menog-i Kharad places the observance of gahambars as the third act of piety preceded by radih, generosity or charity, and rastih, honesty.

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