Fire Festival

Chaharshanbe Suri is a special fire festival. It is celebrated on the last Wednesday of the year, exactly before Nowruz(Persian new year). This ancient festival is very special for Iranians because they believe fire can protect them from negative energies. This favorite celebration is about fire and jumping. They put firewood and bushes in the street and the celebration starts by starting the fire. People gather around the fire and they jump over it. They tell the fire to give me your red color and take my sickly pallor!

What is the philosophy of Chaharshanbe Suri?

Iranians originally believed water, fire, soil, and air are the main four elements of the world. Fire is holy because it is far from pollution. Iranians originally were followers of Zoroaster and they never set fire everywhere. But during years traditions have changed and now Iranians set fire in the streets and jump over it.

Special Traditions Of Chaharshanbe Suri

The festival starts in the early evening. Children run through the streets banging on pots with spoons (which has called Qashoq Zani) to beat out the last unlucky Wednesday of the year. One of the interesting traditions in this night is preparing food and nuts. The nuts are a mixture of 7 nuts. They believe eating nuts at this special night will solve their problems. For dinner, they eat special noodle soup. People jump over fire and wives buy a new mirror, comb, and a sweep.