A Study of Mithraism in the Culture of Bakhtiari People

One of the most important issues in preserving an area’s indigenous values is finding traces of the past. Bakhtiari rituals, as an intangible heritage of the Bakhtiari people, have been passed down from one generation to another over a long time. The rituals are full of symbolic concepts that have originated from their myths, culture, and beliefs over time. The purpose of this study is to identify the symbols of Mithraism along with other pictorial symbols derived from the concept and stories of Mehr in the culture of Bakhtiari people. This study is based on a comparative study of documents and research on mythology, history of religions, and ancient Iran. Mehr ritual is one of the rituals in which symbolic images have been used as a visual language for conveying the concepts and principles of this ritual and its followers. Over time, these images have been preserved with the same hidden meanings in them and the following centuries have been used in the same way However, they were modified and their concepts have developed and used in a wider sense.