My good friend Harith is a Mandaean, one of the last, in fact. Mandaeanism is a Gnostic religion that pre-dates Christianity and is still observed to this day.
Today is the end of Karsa - one of the most important dates of the year on their religious calendar. Karsa is especially interesting given the stipulation that the observant cannot leave their homes for 36 hours. Now I've found over the years that non-Mandaeans tend to make a mess of their attempts to explain Mandaeanism, so rather than attempt an explanation myself I'll simply point you to this short post about Karsa that Harith has put up for the occasion.The holiday is nothing short of fascinating and I urge you all to go read about it.
If this whets your appetite for learning about Mandaeans and you turn to Google to sate that, I strongly recommend that you steer clear of an article that appeared in Harper's a couple of years back that was brimming over with half-truths and out-and-out fictions in describing Mandaean beliefs. Numerous letters to the editor were published in the subsequent issue, but to the best of my knowledge Harper's never retracted the piece. I canceled my subscription over that matter, and I won't give them the benefit of a link here.
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