Iran’s Fire Festival

If you are a non-Iranian and have been following my blog so far, it would probably mean that you already know Iran and Iranians well enough to have heard of chahrshanbeh suri, the Iranian Fire Festival – the one which is held on the last Tuesday night before the Persian New Year. The New Year starts March 21st, which makes chahrshanbeh suri tomorrow night. If you don’t know about it, look it up here. This is a pre-Islamic and much loved tradition, with lots of special events and OF COURSE special foods, such as sour soup, aash-e reshteh and mixed nuts which go with it!

Revelers in Iran celebrate chahrshanbeh suri by jumping over bonfires in the streets while the Islamic state fumes with vigorous loathing of the tradition, but fights a losing battle against it. We outside Iran, however, rarely manage the bonfire part of the night due to our cities’ fire regulations, but some of us at least observe the aash-e reshteh part.” [excerpts from my upcoming book]