The New Year Ceremony of Mandaeans

The Mandaeans are Semites and speak a dialect of Eastern Aramaic known as Mandaic. The name ‘Mandaean’ is said to come from the Aramaic manda meaning “knowledge”, as does Greek gnosis.Within the Middle East, but outside of their community, the Mandaeans are more commonly known as the Ṣubba (singular: Ṣubbī) or Sabians.