“Chaharshanbeh Souri” is one of the Iranian’s ancient celebrations. It’s the celebration of the light and fire.
“Chaharshanbe” in Persian means “Wednesday”, And “Souri” means “festive”. On the last Tuesday night of the year, people gather together, set a fire and dance, and jump around and over the fire. While jumping over the fire we sing a short chant to the fire “Zardi e man az to, Sorkhie to az man”, meaning “my yellowness and illness for you( to be burn in the fire) and redness and power for me ( to get the energy from the fire).”
By that people wish to start the new year fresh, clean, and powerful. As you may know, Iran’s calendar is solar. Newrouz is the Iranian New Year celebrated on the first day of the spring (21st of March) and we start the new year’s celebrations with “Chaharshanbeh Souri”.
There is a tradition that we have to clean the whole entire house and prepare it for the new year. This ritual is called “khaneh Tekani”, and literally means to shake your house. By the way, it’s mom’s favorite tradition and children’s less favorite one :D
We do this preparation on the last winter days to clean the house from bad energies and a fresh start to the year also for the visit of the spirit of our passed away loved ones.
Let’s get back to the chaharshanbe souri’s costumes. Now you know that setting fire is one of the costumes but not the only one. There is another interesting tradition called “Ghashogh Zani”, which means spoon banging! People holding a bowl and spoon, cover their faces with a piece of scarf or something similar and knock on the door of their neighbors or maybe the richest ones and ask for sweets or nuts. Yeah, it’s similar to trick or treat.
In some places, there is a tradition called “Kuozeh Shekastan” or in English breaking the pot. I never saw that but people after jumping over the fire would smash a pot and it is a symbol of destroying the misfortune of the person, his/ her family, and their home.
The thing is that we know so little about this celebration and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran the government tried a lot to ruin this culture in one way or another. For example, they changed the name of the “Chaharshanbe Souri on the calendar. But people always tried to celebrate it every year and it turned into one of our most important gatherings to show the regime that we are together, we dance, and we celebrate our lovely culture. May one day we celebrate freedom and democracy in our land.
In addition, “Chaharshanbe Suori” is not celebrated only in Iran but in many more places such as Iraqi Kurdistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Azerbaijan, and….also many Iranians who live abroad, perhaps in your hometown in Europe or the USA!
Happy “Chaharshanbe Souri” to everyone who celebrates it and everyone interested in learning about different cultures 🔥🧨🎆🎉
