Festivities and Community Celebrations in Iran

Chaharshanbeh Souri

If Navroz is the Persian equivalent of Easter, Chaharshanbeh Souri, in many ways is the equivalent of Halloween. The event is celebrated on the eve of Navroz.

Chahar-Shanbeh means Wednesday and Souri means both 'Red' and 'Celebration'. In this “red celebration” which takes place on the last Wednesday of the solar calendar, people go out and make bush fires 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.(Iran hotel)

 

Navroz(Nowruz)

Navroz meaning 'New Day' is a festival which dates back 3000 years to when King Jamshed called astrologers and declared that 21st March, the day that the sun leaves Pisces, the twelfth sign of the zodiac and enters into Aries, the very first zodiac sign would be the day when his kingdom would celebrate 'New Year'. It has been celebrated with pomp and fervor ever since.(hotel iran)

 

Tirgan Festival

Tirgan is celebrated by people in the Mazandaran province on the evening of the twelfth day of the fourth month of their own calendar. Tirgan is a celebration born out of the legend of Arash, the legendary bowman who shot an arrow to indicate the borderline between Iran and Turan but died soon after, drained of all his energy. People come together to eat traditional Iranian food, drink lots of sherbets and tea and participate in drama, reciting poetry and singing(Tehran hotel )

 

Mehrgan Celebration

Mehr is the name of the Sun Goddess and the seventh month of the Iranian calendar. The Mehrgan festival celebrated by the Zoroastrian people of Kerman is an occasion to celebrate harvest by sacrificing a sheep or chicken and feasting on it.(hotel Tehran)