Chaharshanbe Suri

When the New Year approaches and the world begins to renew itself, and after everyone engages in cleaning their homes, it is time to cleanse the hidden chambers of the heart, so that with a heart as clear and pure as a mirror, we can welcome a new and prosperous year and open the gates of the heart to joy, happiness, and virtue. Near the New Year, when the sound of firecrackers from Chaharshanbe Suri bushes is heard, in the period when the demon of cold has left and spring has embraced the earth, everything should be imbued with truth, righteousness, purity, and happiness.

The last Wednesday night of each year hosts the Chaharshanbe Suri celebration. This ritual is also called Chaharshanbe-Saharan, where “Saharan” means awake and aware, indicating a Wednesday ruled by consciousness and vigilance. “Suri” means red, and the joy of the red fire becomes an excuse to invite people to happiness and festivity. Historically, in ancient Iran, the days of the week were not customary, and Saturday, Monday, or Wednesday as known today did not exist; this festival was aligned with Wednesday after the advent of Islam.

Some researchers believe this celebration derives from the ancient Iranian fire-lighting ritual held on the 360th day of the year, right before the Hamspat-Madam festival, conducted to welcome the spirits of ancestors and the souls of the departed to the earth.

In the ancient culture of this land, fire was revered as a symbol of divine radiance and an Ahuraic force that honored purity and battled evil, burning wickedness, warming goodness, and guarding love, kindness, friendship, and affection within us. Ultimately, this fire brings peace, security, and human attention to one another. As Rumi said:

“This flute’s call is fire, not wind; whoever lacks this fire, may they vanish.
The fire of love is that which falls into the reed; the gush of love is that which flows into the mind.”

This fire of love must always burn within us, learning both from the tree and the sun. From the tree, which even after its season of blossoms and fruits continues to give warmth and kindness to others; and from the sun, which continuously spreads its divine radiance to the world, even behind clouds, benefiting men and women, young and old, rich and poor equally, giving life, motion, and continuity. The sun sends fire to families to provide them warmth and light, and in ancient Iranian culture, the sun was regarded as the mother of all abilities and a manifestation of Ahura Mazda.

During this celebration, people gather around the fire, cast away coldness and impurity, and exchange love, affection, and health. They offer fruits, sweets, and candies to please God and greet Nowruz with Chaharshanbe Suri. Our ancestors considered fire a pure and precious element of nature, a sign of warmth, love, kindness, and usefulness. Zoroaster advised people to show gratitude in places where fire is kept and used for learning and teaching.

One Iranian custom on this night is buteh-afrozi (fire bush lighting), where three or seven piles of thorny branches are set on fire in a row to absorb love and kindness and remove sickness and pallor. Then, a small black coal symbolizing misfortune, salt symbolizing envy, and a low-value coin representing poverty are placed in an old clay pot, which is put on the path or thrown from the roof to ward off bad luck until the next year, replacing it with a new pot for drinking water.

Iranians believed that by lighting fire and burning thorn bushes, impurity and evil are removed from homes and the environment, and the ashes are entrusted to wind or flowing water so that the fire is not contaminated. Fire symbolizes light and warmth, and its flame brings clarity and awareness. Among the four elements—water, fire, earth, and air—only fire can cleanse pollution without being tainted itself. Therefore, it is regarded as a symbol of love and purity.

During the festival, everyone, young and old, jumps over the fire three times to remove weakness and paleness caused by sorrow and illness, replacing it with health, redness, and vitality, while chanting: “My yellow for your red, your red for my yellow,” or “Away grief, come joy; away hardship, come fortune,” and “O Wednesday night, key of the four hinges, fulfill the servant’s wish!”

Just as fire is sacred in Zoroastrianism, believed to be divine in essence, and their prophet carried eternal fire, so too should the human heart be a brazier of God’s love, spreading light like the sun without taking anything in return. In other religions, fire and light are also revered. In Iranian culture, fire was honored, and the Qur’an, in Surah An-Nur, describes God as light; in Surah Yasin, it mentions fire created from green trees to produce warmth and light; in Surah Waqi’a, it instructs attention to the fire one lights. Stories such as Prophet Abraham’s trial by fire, and passages highlighting fire as a test of the righteous, show fire as a measure of truth and falsehood. In the Torah, Moses sees a burning bush on Mount Sinai, where God speaks to him from fire (Deuteronomy 12). Hence, Chaharshanbe Suri carries both internal and external meanings: divine resonance in the heart, and love, joy, peace, and friendship with all beings, eliminating malice, bitterness, anger, and hatred from oneself and the world.

Another ancient Chaharshanbe Suri custom is qashoq-zani (spoon tapping). Women and girls with wishes or needs would carry copper spoons and bowls, visit seven houses at night, and tap their spoons on the bowls in silence. Homeowners familiar with this tradition would give money, sweets, nuts, or rice. If the spoon-tappers returned empty-handed, it was seen as their wish being unfulfilled. Over time, this practice faded, and the festival evolved.

Dangerous or inappropriate behavior has never been part of this national celebration. Its essence is to bring smiles, light, joy, and love, while ugliness, bitterness, fear, and sorrow are foreign, modern distortions. On this night, from young to old, three piles of thorny branches symbolize the three great teachings of ancient Iranians—good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. By burning them, we rid our hearts of thorns, gather red vitality from the fire, expel evil and impurity from the heart, cleanse ourselves of sickness and sorrow, bring health and joy to the home, and vow by the fire to maintain good thoughts, pure words, and righteous deeds, preparing our hearts for the Haft-Seen table. Without clearing the darkness from our hearts, the teachings of Haft-Seen cannot reside there.

A kind nature does not favor hearts full of resentment and without love. Reason dictates that we take steps for self-growth and purify thought and action for improvement. After spring cleaning the outer home, we must clean the inner home as well. This ritual reminds us to replace coldness with warmth, love, and reconciliation, welcoming renewal with open hearts. Like fire, we can give light, warmth, and love throughout the world, replacing enmity with affection, bitterness with kindness, and anger with gentleness, listening to the flame whisper: “Be this way and make your heart a prosperous home.”

Through cooperation and companionship, let us begin with love and kindness, honor each other’s conduct, beliefs, and tastes, and regard all as trees of existence, moving from multiplicity to unity and from conflict to the “summit of peace.”