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The Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) is based in the United States and also quarterly publishes the Fezana Journal. [4] It claimed that the American Zoroastrian community grew by 33.5% between 2004 and 2012 to 15,000 adherents, [5] while the overall North American community grew by 24.4% to 20,847 adherents. [6]
The interactions between Judaism and Zoroastrianism resulted in transfer of religious ideas between the two religions and as a result, it is believed that Jews under Achaemenid rule were influenced by Zoroastrian angelology, demonology, eschatology, as well as Zoroastrian ideas about compensatory justice in life and after death. [211]
Six irregularly-spaced seasonal festivals, called gahanbars (meaning "proper season"), are celebrated during the religious year. The six festivals are additionally associated with the six "primordial creations" of Ahura Mazda, otherwise known as the Amesha Spentas, and through them with aspects of creation (the sky, the waters, the earth, plant life, animal life, humankind).
This religious-cultural symbol was adapted by the Pahlavi dynasty to represent the Iranian nation. [24] In modern Zoroastrianism, one of the interpretations of the faravahar is that it is a representation of the human soul and its development along with a visual guide of good conduct. [25]
The Faravahar, one of the most prominent symbols used to represent Zoroastrianism. In 2012, a study by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America published a demographic picture of Zoroastrianism around the world, which was compared with an earlier study from 2004. [1]
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The Encyclopædia Iranica claims that the stories of Zoroaster's life were attributed to him by quoting stories from Christianity and Judaism, but the most quotations were from Islam after the entry of Muslims into Persia, as it was a means for the Zoroastrian clergy to strengthen their religion.
The term yazata is already used in the Gathas, the oldest texts of Zoroastrianism and believed to have been composed by Zarathustra himself. In these hymns, yazata is used as a generic, applied to Ahura Mazda as well as to the "divine sparks" that are in later tradition the Amesha Spentas.