Mehr Foundation Hosts Ancient Persian Autumn Festival in San Antonio

The Mehr Foundation of San Antonio hosted the Ancient Persian Autumn Festival on Saturday at the main district office of Alamo Colleges, Texas Public Radio reported.

The event celebrated Mehregan, an ancient celebration dedicated to Mehr, the symbol of light, friendship, love, kindness, harvest, and abundance. The Mehr Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded with the mission of celebrating and promoting Persian arts and culture, and is managed by the San Antonio Persian Cultural Society.

“It’s really all things Iranian or Persian, as some of us say, and a time for the community, the Iranian community and the extended San Antonio community to come out and learn about Persia,” Mehr Foundation President Mojgan Panah told Texas Public Radio.

The festival featured the theme “Letters to Iran.” Attendees wrote messages and placed them in a collection box to express their thoughts regarding turmoil in their homeland.

“With all the turmoil and everything that’s going on back in our homeland in Iran, we wanted to give people a space, a safe space to come and express their emotions, their thoughts, put their thoughts to a letter, drop it in a box,” Panah told Texas Public Radio.

Organizers created old stamps from Persia as memorabilia and plan to digitize the letters for publication on social media and their website.

Attendee Nazanin Ghahremani placed a message in the collection box. “I would like to say that all the Iranian Americans that live outside of Iran, we fully support you, we love you and encourage you to fight for your freedom and never stop believing that you are meant to have the same freedom as everybody else around the world,” she told Texas Public Radio.

Sahba Shayani, a lecturer in Persian language at the University of California, Los Angeles, delivered a lecture on ancient Persian language and culture. The event also featured traditional Persian music, dancing, and food.