Chaharshanbe Suri
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Chaharshanbe Suri (in Persian: چهارشنبهسوری) is the Persian festival of fire. It is celebrated in the last wednesday before the Noruz (Persian New Year). The celebration usually starts in the evening. On this occasion people make bon-fires on the streets and jump over them. The young use much firework before and during the Chaharshanbe Suri (literally: Red Wednesday).
The tradition includes people going into the streets and alleys to make fires, and jump over them while singing the traditional song Sorkhi-e to az man. Zardi-e man az to. The literal translation is, Your fiery red color is mine and my sickly yellow paleness is yours. Loosely translated, this means you want the fire to take your paleness, sickness and problems and in turn give you redness, warmth and energy. There is no religious significance attached to Chahar Shanbeh Suri and it serves as a cultural festival for all Iranian Jews, Moslems, Armenians, Turks and Zoroastrians alike. Indeed this celebration, in particular the significant role of fire, is likely to hail from Zoroastrianism.
Iranians celebrated the last 10 days of the year in their annual obligation feast of all souls, Hamaspathmaedaya (Farvardigan or popularly Forodigan). They believed Faravahar, the guardian angles for humans and also the spirits of dead would come back for reunion. These spirits were entertained as honored guests in their old homes, and were bidden a formal ritual farewell at the dawn of the New Year. The ten-day festival also coincided with festivals celebrating the creation of fire and humans. In Sassanid period the festival was divided into two distinct pentads, known as the lesser and the greater Pentad, or Panji as it is called today. Gradually the belief developed that the 'Lesser Panji' belonged to the souls of children and those who died without sin, whereas 'Greater Panji' was truly for all souls.