Charshanbe Sury- Iran

Celebration of Fire or “Charshanbe Sury” is a Persian traditional festival celebrated the end of winter and beginning of spring. This festival is held on the last Thursday night of the solar year calendar and it has deep roots in Persian history and their tradition.

  

The original tradition of charshanbe sury is a kind of religious ritual which clears the souls and sprits by fire and getting ready to accept the spring and rebirth of nature. In this day people make fire and dance around it and jump on top of the fire singing all the time. Families get together and pray for being clean and healthy and get ready for the biggest Persian festival the “Nowruz”. In fact Celebration of Fire day is a prequel to “Nowruz” and a symbol of people getting ready for rebirth of nature.

But in modern charshanbe sury festivals, people and mostly the youth are using firecrackers and fireworks to celebrate this day and therefore made it dangerous and risky for everyone to attend.

Fire in ancient persian history is a symbol of purity and cleanness and therefor considered as a holy element and liable to appreciation. This festival is keeping the old tradition alive with the taste of modernity and borrowing from other light celebration festivals like Diwali which includes the fireworks and using firecrackers.

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