Chahārshanbe-Sūri (Persian: چهارشنبه‌سوری, UniPers: Câršanbe-Suri), pronounced Chārshanbe-Sūri (Persian: چارشنبه‌سوری) is an ancient Persian festival dating at least to 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era.^[1] The festival of fire is a prelude to the Norouz festival, which marks the arrival of spring and revival of nature. Traditionally celebrated on the last Wednesday night of the year, Chahrshanbeh Soori has, since the Iranian revolution, been marked on the evening of the last Tuesday. The word Chahar Shanbeh means Wednesday and Suri is red. Bonfires are lit to keep the sun alive till early hours of the morning.^[2] The celebration usually starts in the evening, with people making bonfires in the streets and jumping over them.

The tradition includes people going into the streets and alleys to make fires, and jump over them while singing the song Sorkhi-ye to az man, zardi-ye man az to. The literal translation is, Your fiery red color is mine, and my sickly yellow paleness is yours. This is a purification rite and 'soori' itself means redness which hints at the color of fire.^[3] 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 Chaharshanbeh Soori and it serves as a cultural festival for Persian Jews, Muslims, Armenians, Kurds, Turks and Zoroastrians alike. Indeed this celebration, in particular the significant role of fire, is likely to hail from Zoroastrianism.

source: Wikipedia

IMAN events

Last Tuesday of every Persian year, IMAN's CYPG group makes great fireworks at IMAN.

Please contact (310)-202-8181 for reserving your tickets to this event.