Outdoor in Ontario

As the procession of 30 mobeds ceremoniously walked up the green carpet on the 10.2 acre property of the Ontario Zoroastrian Community Foundation (OZCF) in Oakville, the movement of their white priestly attire fluttering on the bright, windy summer solstice day, June 21, 2015, was captured by the overhead drone attached with a video camera. "Jashan in the Baug” was, according to OZCF president Percy Dastur, "an event of a lifetime,” attended by over 660 people. "Our mobeds have diligently served the Zoroastrian community in Canada for over 50 years and it was necessary that we recognize and felicitate their dedicated services,” reminded Dastur who heads the OZCF body of over 750 members.
The day marked a series of celebrations for the Ontario Zoroastrians seated in two large tents admeasuring 100 ft by 40 ft. Participating in the jashan prayers were the dedicated priests, the eldest being 88-year-old Ervad Jehan Bagli and the youngest, 12-year-old Nekzad Elavia, as also the recently ordained women mobedyars Guloo Austin and Mahshad Khosraviani. All the priests were presented a glass memorabilia in the shape of a flame. The contribution of the OZCF board members and the jashan organizing committee was also recognized.
"To perpetuate our religion we at OZCF continue to make progress in our plan to build the first consecrated place of worship with consecrated fire (adaran) in North America. Such infrastructure will enable us to perform the inner liturgical ceremonies and ordain future priests,” commented Phil Sidhwa, chair, Place of Worship Advisory Committee. They hope to see the 6,000 sq ft temple built by 2019.

Tom Adam, Ervad Nozer Kotwal & Bina Behboodi

Jashan

Priests who were felicitated

Section of the audience

Drone photographing the event

With the estimated cost of the agiary being three million CAD (Rs 150,00,000), the OZCF Place of Worship Advisory Committee "is currently in the process of finalizing the engineering report and necessary approvals for which discussions are ongoing with the Town of Oakville and Region of Halton. The community and members of OZCF have already started contributing towards the Agiary fund, however a more comprehensive fundraising for the Agiary will start soon,” explained Dastur.
Among the special dignitaries attending Jashan in the Baug were Oakville councilor Tom Adam, Katayun Kapadia and Homi Gandhi, president and vice president respectively of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) who presented a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder to the OZCF president, and Bina Behbudi, president of the 44-year-old Zoroastrian Society of Ontario that has its activities at the Mehraban Guiv Darbe Mehr on Bayview Avenue.
According to a report by arZan Wadia on Parsi Khabar, the function commenced with a brief explanation of the jashan offered by two youngsters and religious songs by the youths of the religion classes. After the jashan those present partook of fruits, dry fruits, malido, sev, dahi, ice cream, cakes, donated by OZCF members. Singing and dancing to a live band kept the guests well entertained.
The same occasion showcased the large afarganiu donated by the Zanzibar Agiary for use by the OZCF. The larger afarganiu for the fire temple had been donated by the Dorabji Dinshaw Dhanji (Adenwalla) family that built the atash dadgah in Zanzibar, notes a write-up by Meher Panthaky, chair of the newsletter committee. The smaller afarganiu, donated by the Darukhanawala family, was in use by the Zanzibar anjuman. After the political upheaval in 1964 when the community numbers dwindled from 250 to seven, it was decided to sell the Agiary and share the proceeds between the OZCF and the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe in London where the majority of Zanzibar Zoroastrians have migrated.
To finance the new Place of Worship in Ontario, a series of raffles were organized in 2015. The total value of the prizes that included an iPad Mini, Canon SLR Digital Camera, Panasonic Television, Apple iMAC computer and trip to South Africa was CAD 6,387 (Rs 319,350) for which the association was able to raise over CAD 20,000 (Rs 1,000,000).
The OZCF is keen to pursue its vision of building a community center "to ensure the preservation of our rich culture and heritage, and promote awareness and recognition of our ancient Zoroastrian religion, within and outside our community, from generation to generation,” as notes their website. "We will engage architects and building professionals… to guide us as we spend weekends building our vision, brick by brick, with our own hands and heart.”