Fire Festivals in Asia
IRAN
Chaharshanbe Suri
Celebrated on the last Tuesday of March
“Chaharshanbe Suri is the symbol of good health, cultivation, light, and purity to Iranians.”
A Persian Festival of fire, Chaharshanbe Suri takes place on the last Tuesday of March, and sees bonfires sprouting up in various public areas, in alleys, in front of homes and sometimes parks. It is celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz (the Iranian New Year). means “Wednesday” and means both “red” and “celebration”. In this “red celebration”, people go out and make bushfires and keep them burning till the next morning. This is symbolic of burning all that was bad, pain, unhappiness, sickness and worry, and looking forward to a new beginning. Before the start of the festival, people gather brushwood in an open, free exterior space. At sunset, after making one or more bonfires, they jump over the, literally meaning “[let] your ruddiness [be] mine, my paleness yours”, or a local equivalent of it.
