{"id":117802,"date":"2026-05-17T12:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/117802\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T12:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T12:17:11","slug":"iraqs-mandaean-community-marks-golden-baptism-feast-in-white-robes-and-running-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/117802\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq’s Mandaean community marks Golden Baptism feast in white robes and running water"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n 2026-05-17T11:54:17+00:00<\/p>\n

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Shafaq News-
\nBaghdad<\/p>\n

Dressed in
\nwhite and wading into flowing water, Iraq’s Mandaean community joined Mandaeans
\naround the world Sunday in marking Dihba Idimana (Dehwa Daimana) \u2014the Golden
\nBaptism feast\u2014 under mild spring skies.<\/p>\n

Baptism is the
\ncentral pillar of the Mandaean faith, obligatory from birth and repeated
\nthroughout a believer’s life. On this occasion, community members gather at the
\nMandi, the Mandaean temple, to undergo the baptismal rite and prepare Thwab, a
\nritual meal of atonement offered on behalf of the dead. The feast commemorates
\nthe baptism of the Prophet John the Baptist, Yahya ibn Zakariya, who holds the
\nrole of central prophet in the faith. It is observed as a day of spiritual
\npurification, cleansing the soul of all sin, according to Mandaean religious
\nbelief.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The rite itself
\nrequires the baptized to enter flowing water alongside a clergyman who recites
\nscripture throughout the ceremony. All participants, men, women, and children,
\nwear a white garment specific to the occasion called the Rasta.<\/p>\n

Mandaeanism is
\none of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. Its liturgical language is
\nAramaic, the same language used in its holy scripture, the Ginza Rabba, meaning
\n“the Great Treasure” in Arabic. The text contains the scriptures of
\nthe Prophet Adam: its first section addresses the creation, the teachings of
\nthe Eternal Living God, and the struggle between good and evil; its second
\nconcerns the fate of the soul after death, its journey from the body to the
\nworld of light, and the divine reckoning it faces. The Ginza Rabba was
\ntranslated into Arabic under the linguistic supervision of the late poet Abdul
\nRazzaq Abdul Wahid.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Iraq’s Mandaean
\ncommunity has faced sustained hardship over recent decades, driving the
\nmajority of its members to emigrate or to relocate from southern Iraqi cities
\nto the Kurdistan Region. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Mandaeans remain in Iraq
\ntoday \u2014a fraction of a once-larger presence\u2014 with Erbil receiving thousands of
\nthose who stayed, opening a Mandi for their worship and becoming home to
\nhundreds of Mandaean goldsmiths. Gold-working is the community’s traditional
\nand predominant trade.<\/p>\n

Migration waves
\nbeginning in the late 1990s have dispersed the community across Sweden,
\nGermany, Australia, and the United States, where members have established
\nMandis, obtained official recognition, and secured the legal right to practice
\ntheir rituals and meet their religious needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-05-17T11:54:17+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Baghdad Dressed in white and wading into flowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[152,40456,94,40455,14327],"class_list":["post-117802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-breaking","tag-golden-baptism-day","tag-iraq","tag-iraqs-mandaean-community-marks-golden-baptism-feast-in-white-robes-and-running-water","tag-mandaeans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116589877341636638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}