Christmas gains traction in Iran despite official disfavor

Celebration of Christmas by non-Christians has gained considerable popularity in Iran in the past two decades despite being frowned upon by most clerics in the Shi'ite theocracy.

Reports on social media of shops selling mostly Chinese-imported Christmas accessories, eateries displaying Christmas decorations and offering themed menus and people gathering outside churches or throwing Christmas parties at home were abundant this year.

Many recent posts on social media show people buying trees, taking photos in front of shop windows or with men dressed as Santa Claus on the street.

This year, there was also a video of singing and dancing on Christmas night near the Armenian church on Tehran's Mirza-ye Shirazi Street. Unlike last year, the videos showed many unveiled women on the street, too.

People dancing on the street in Tehran on December 25

There have been numerous reports in Iranian media in recent years that quote owners of businesses in the area saying most of the shoppers who buy the trees, accessories, and gifts are Muslims.

Unsurprisingly, the phenomenon has been met with consternation by clerics.

“Celebrations and activities related to Christmas are not admissible unless necessary because they promote the non-Islamic culture," conservative Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi ruled in 2014.

"Necessity here means harm to familial relations and friendships [with Christians] if these activities are not performed,” the senior cleric said in response to a question on whether Muslims could congratulate each other for Christmas and celebrate the event.

Only a tiny proportion of the Iranian society are Christians. According to the 2016 census, Christians of recognized denominations – mainly Armenians and Assyro-Chaldeans – comprised around 0.15 percent of the population.

Christmas decorations in Jolfa Armenian neighborhood and Vank Cathedral in Isfahan

Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism are recognized as legitimate religions in the Islamic Republic and their followers enjoy some degree of freedom of worship. They also have their own representatives in the parliament.

Although converting from Islam can carry the death penalty, conversion to Christianity has been on the rise in Iran.

"Iranians have become the most open people to the gospel," David Yeghnazar of Elam Ministries said in 2018. The Christian Broadcast Network found in the same year that "Christianity is growing faster in the Islamic Republic of Iran than in any other country."

However, there are no reliable figures on the number of converts who mostly worship at underground establishments often called house churches.

Most Armenians who make up the biggest Christian community in Iran live in Tehran, Isfahan, and the northwestern provinces.

Mirza-ye Shirazi Street, a formerly Armenian neighborhood with a large church, and Majidieh neighborhood in the east of the capital where many Armenian families live have become the most popular destinations for Christmas enthusiasts in Tehran who want to immerse themselves in a Christmassy mood and environment.

Assyro-Chaldeans celebrate on December 25 but unbeknownst to most ordinary Iranians, Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6 following the tradition of Eastern Orthodox Christians.

The Christmas spirit prevails on Mirza-ye Shirazi Street and elsewhere in Tehran from mid-December when many shops and shopping centers start displaying Christmas trees and lighting.

Christmas spirit on Tehran's Mirza-ye Shirazi Street

Vank Cathedral, a four-hundred-year-old church and major sightseeing destination in Jolfa, Isfahan’s old Armenian quarter, is another very popular destination for Christmas enthusiasts.

Some travel to the city in December and early January only to visit the cathedral and the beautiful lighting and decorations on display.

Last year, local media reported hundreds of people rushing to the cathedral on December 25.

The cathedral’s doors were closed earlier than usual that evening but some among the boisterous crowd of singing and dancing youth outside the church tried to force the gates open. The crowd was eventually violently dispersed by the police.

Hundreds gathered outside the same cathedral this year, too, but police intervention was not reported.

Young people outside Isfahan's Vank Cathedral jokingly chanting an Islamic slogan on December 25

The videos posted on social media, however, showed the crowd of largely young Muslim men chanting “Peace be upon the Prophet Muhammed and his household”, a common practice in Islamic gatherings and after prayers, after a few among the crowd jokingly prompted the chanting.

This was taken as disrespect to Christians by some including Mehdi Mazruei, a former member of the City Council of Isfahan, who said the crowd’s behavior was offensive.

Authorities should “guard the spiritual capital of hundreds of years of respectful coexistence among [followers] of various religions [in the city],” Mazruei wrote on X on Wednesday.

This year, there were also citizen reports of a more pronounced Christmas spirit in shopping centers and cafes of Tabriz, the capital of the East Azarbaijan Province, which has a smaller Armenian and Assyro-Chaldean population than Tehran and Isfahan. Tabriz has several churches including the Saint Mary Armenian Apostolic church dating to the Safavid period.

In the past two decades, Valentine's Day and Halloween have also become very popular among Muslim Iranians.

Religious fundamentalists and the hardline political establishment who even frown upon the celebration of pre-Islamic festivals such as Nowrouz (the Persian New Year), Yalda (the Winter Solstice Festival), and Charshanbeh Souri (an ancient fire festival) as pagan traditions are very concerned about these celebrations which they often describe as a Western cultural onslaught on Shi'ite Iran.

For several years, pundits have suggested that the rising popularity of Christmas in an Islamic country like Iran is a collective response to the government's attempts to promote Shi'ite mourning ceremonies such as Ashura and Arbaeen over the celebration of happy occasions in the society.

“What is important to people is life and happiness. (Celebration of Christmas and other western holidays) is … a reaction to the traditional (Shi'ite) culture,” philosopher and university professor Bijan Abdolkarimi told local media in 2020.

"I haven't been to Christmas celebrations, but why do (some) people mock it so much? Is it wrong for people to have an excuse to be happy?" an anonymous user on X said.

"Is it wrong for us to have an excuse to be joyous when the rest of the world is being joyous? They keep mocking and saying we are not Christians," the user weighed in.

"Forget about religion and just be happy."