Campaign on Quality Family Time

On the occasion of ‘Shab-e-Yalda’ (Yalda Night), an ancient Persian festivity marking the last day of fall and a celebration of winter solstice, a campaign on social media on Tuesday asked people to put away their smartphones for five hours before midnight, and spend quality time with their families.

Every year on Yalda Night, Iranians around the world gather with friends and family to celebrate the night reading Persian poetry by Hafez and Sa’adi, and serve red fruits like pomegranates and water melon as well as dried nuts.

But such traditions seem to have lost their allure in the telecommunication age. As part of the social campaign, people started sharing on online platforms statements such as “Ask how your family is doing instead of the WiFi password”, or “Let’s hang out like we did in the good old days”.

A survey earlier this year showed Iranian family members spend an average of only 15 minutes talking to each other per day.