The Chel Kachalun rite

The Chel Kachalun ritual is a kind custom that is found near the Bakhtiāri when it rains a lot and is a matter of concern among the people, since too abundant rain increases the probability of damage and floods and in a certain way threatens the life of the Bakhtiāri .
In this ritual that is known as "Chel Kachalun" or "Bārān band", (40 bald or stop the rain) human elements are not seen, but symbols created with wood or with a long ribbon that are tied in front of the black curtains or to houses.
In this rite a person beautifying himself in front of the black tent, prepares 40 pieces of wood and on those he writes the name of 40 people bald and puts them in the rain. Then another wood is taken, each wood is given a blow and a poem is recited, the content of which concerns the request to God for the cessation of rain.
In this rite only one person participates and people are spectators from inside the black curtains or observe the ceremony from the windows of the houses; in this way the inhabitants are convinced that the chest of the clouds is torn and an hour later it will stop raining.
Sometimes even the local youth get together, each one takes a long ribbon and loudly pronounces the name of 40 bald among the locals and every time he pronounces it he knots the tape until 40 nodes are completed.
Then those 40 knots in the rain are hung from the branch of a tree to stop raining. Similar customs exist also in the Māzandarān region, where the name of 7 or 40 bald is written on a piece of paper and hung on a ribbon to blow the wind and stop raining or reciting prayers and making various offers of charity ask God to let the sun out.
In another place in this same region, women in groups recite poems that have as their subject the request of the sun or the children of the village tie a wire of metal boxes, take the two ends of the wire and go through the alleys of the place reciting poems that speak of the request of the sun or in another place the children wear old clothes and with the broom move the mud in the alleys and then the members of each family give them food or sweets.
In other places the inhabitants of the place stole a cloth from the Imāmzādeh Shāhzādeh of the village and then, after the sun came out, they return it to the Imāmzādeh along with another. There was also another custom called "mam mam sho" according to which a person or people with pants up to their shins go under the rain praying to the almighty God and joining the innocent Imams (A) go to the doors of houses and in the courtyard they jump so much in the mud that they push the owner to pray.

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