or Visprad or Vispered is either a particular Zoroastrian religious ceremony or the name given to a passage collection within the greater Avesta compendium of texts.
The Visperad ceremony "consists of the rituals of the Yasna, virtually unchanged, but with a liturgy extended by twenty-three[a] supplementary sections.
"[1] These supplementary sections (kardag) are then – from a philological perspective – the passages that make up the Visperad collection.
The Visperad ceremony – in medieval Zoroastrian texts referred to as the Jesht-i Visperad,[4] that is, "Worship through praise (Yasht) of all the patrons," – developed[d] as an "extended service" for celebrating the gahambars,[4] the high Zoroastrian festivals that celebrate six season(al) events.
These "bounteous immortals" (amesha spentas) are the "all patrons" – the vispe ratavo – who apportion the bounty of creation.