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‘About the Roots and Rituals of Chāhārshanbeh Sūri, the Iranian Festival of Fire!’
“The concept is indeed intriguing: The eve of the last Wednesday (so technically, Tuesday evening) before the turn of the year, called in Persian ‘Chaharshanbe Suri’, which literally means ‘Wednesday Festivity’. Some argue that ‘suri’ also means ‘red’, hence the variant translation ‘Red Wednesday’, with red possibly referring to ‘fire’.
Either way, ‘Chaharshanbe Suri’ is a (barely) surviving tradition from old times. The popular opinion is that the ritual has its roots in ancient Zoroastrian traditions, where fire is sacred and considered to be the visible presence of Ahura Mazda.
‘Fire’, therefore, is the defining element of Chaharshanbe Suri, and the practice mainly involves setting up bonfires in the streets and jumping over them. There is a nice song that goes along with it: ‘My sickly yellow paleness is yours; your fiery red color is mine.’ It is like a mantra you say as you make each jump, in a symbolic move to exchange all the dust and soot you have collected over the year with the liveliness and splendor of the burning fire.
The ‘festival of fire’ heralds the coming of spring, the Persian New Year, the new beginnings, and has for centuries served as an occasion to join family members, friends and everyone you care about in a time of festivity and fun.
Fire, not only in historic Persia, has long been held as sacred among Indians, Europeans, and many other cultures. According to ancient Iranian beliefs, Azar (Fire) was the son of Ahura Mazda. Ancient Persians believed in the purity and purifying power of fire. The belief was so strong that, to prove one’s innocence, people had to cross through the fire, as Siavash did in Ferdowsi’s epic poem, the Shahnameh. Chaharshanbe Suri (Chaharshanbe Soori) is the festival of fire. Chaharshanbeh means Wednesday and Suri has the meanings of red, party or festival.
People would also put food, sweets, flowers, and wine on the roof of their houses and pray for their dead to appease them. This is the origin of the fire festival in Persia before the arrival of Islam and was held in the last five days of the year. But where does Chaharshanbe Suri originate from?
Undoubtedly Chaharshanbeh Suri is one of the most popular ways to welcome Nowruz. A specially made mixtures of nuts and dried fruit, called ajil, is a commonly nibbled on throughout the evening. This tasty treat, believed to make one kinder and compassionate, is prepared using salted hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, prunes, apricots, and raisins. Most notably, during this night Iranians build numerous public bonfires in the streets and jump over them. A few days before the celebrations, communities in rural areas gather tinders and twigs, and in cities many purchase firewood and firecrackers. Celebrations start early in the evening and continue all night. As participants jump over the fires they chant “zardi-e man az to, sorkhi-e to az man”
“زردی من از تو، سرخی تو از من “
meaning “give me your red color and take back my sickly pallor”. This tune is sung to dispose of sickness and difficulties and to replace that with health, wealth, and happiness for the year to come.
It is believed that this ritual renders them immune for a whole year to maladies and misfortunes that make people pale and thin. In some places (e.g., Nāʾīn, Anārak, Ḵūr, Urmia) fires are kindled on the rooftops, a jug of water is poured on the fire, and burning brush is thrown into the street below; in other places the ritual takes place on hilltops (Honarī, pp. 25-27, Pūr-Karīm, p. 20).
Banging spoons (qāšoq-zanī). Another very popular custom on Čahāršanba-sūrī is to bang spoons against plates or bowls, both for entertainment and as a means of telling fortunes; it often has amatory overtones. After jumping over the fire, when the night has grown dark, women and sometimes men disguise themselves in čādors and, each with a spoon and a plate, go to the doors of their neighbors’ houses and bang the spoons against the plates. In response, the householder puts a small gift—a morsel of food, a fruit, some nuts, or a trinket—on each plate. Young men often take this opportunity to establish rapport with neighbor girls; indeed, the common purpose of spoon banging is to give a young man an excuse to go to the house of a girl in whom he is interested. If she has any feeling for him she usually puts one of her own trinkets or some sugared almonds or boiled sweets on his plate; otherwise, she drives him away by spraying water at him (Enjavī, I, p. 126).
Fortune telling (fāl). Another popular practice on Čahāršanba-sūrī is fortune telling from a jug (fāl-e kūza, fāl-e bolūnī), usually one with a wide mouth (bolūnī). Everyone present puts an ornament—a ring, bracelet, an earring—that he or she has been wearing into the jug. Then slips of paper inscribed with verses or sentences containing auguries—the number of slips must equal the number of people present—are put into the jug. A young child is assigned to reach into the jug and pull out one piece of paper and give it to the most learned or literate man in the party. Then the child pulls one of the ornaments from the jug. The man reads aloud the verse on the piece of paper, and the owner of the ornament learns from it what his or her fortune will be. In many places, including Isfahan and towns in central Iran, it is customary to take the fortunes from a copy of the dīvān of Ḥāfeẓ, rather than from pieces of paper. The reader chooses a verse at random as the fortune for the owner of the object taken from the pot. At Isfahan a small mirror and a box of collyrium, which supposedly bring good luck, are added to the ornaments in the jug (for similar customs connected with the first evening of winter, Šab-e Čella, see Enjavī, e.g., I, pp. 26, 126; II, p. 165).
Burning rue. Burning rue seeds (esfand) or frankincense (kondor) at parties on the eve of Čahāršanba-sūrī is a widespread practice in most regions of Persia, being considered a necessary precaution against the evil eye and malevolent spirits, devils, and genies (cf. above on fumigation to avoid the evil eye). While rue and a small amount of salt are thrown on the fire the people recite rhymes, which, though varying with the local dialects, usually go something like this: “Rue shrubs and rue seeds (esfandūne, i.e., esfand-dāna), rue shrubs with thirty-three seeds (dūne), rue shrubs know themselves; let them blast (be-tarkūne, i.e., be-tarakānad) the jealous eye” (or “the evil eye”).”
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