Yalda coincides the northern hemisphere's winter solstice when people in the northern hemisphere experience the longest and darkest night of the year. Iranians celebrate the night based on a traditional belief that even the longest and darkest night will end up surrendering to the light of the day.
People prepare for the night by buying watermelons, pomegranates and decoration items and the markets get ready to supply people's need days and sometimes weeks before Yalda Night.
Yalda Night has been celebrated among Iranians and some other nations in the Middle East and Central Asia since ancient times. People set special tables and gather together with their families, friends, relatives and loved ones and stay up late night, reading poems, making jokes and chatting.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in 2019, Iranians have been facing with a paradox of gathering together in Yalda Night while observing COVID-19-related health protocols. People have restricted their Yalda parties to their own families or a few close friends and relatives.
Big parties have been rare and even some people have preferred to visit their loved ones through video calls available thanks to the modern technology to celebrate the traditional occasion.
As the most severely affected people, health worker have been deprived of even celebrating with their own families, because they have to remain in quarantine for their close contact with the COVID-19 patients.
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