Firefeest feest

‘When the sun sets, we light the fire!’

Fire Festival is an Iranian celebration held on the last Tuesday evening before the start of Spring (21st of  March, Nowruz – the Iranian New Year). On this evening, we celebrate the end of the dark days and express our wishes for a bright and healthy spring. This ceremony is a tradition for thousands of years in Iran and it is a way to express our thoughts and share stories with the community. Hopefully through this event we can increase awareness about the cultural background of these ceremonies, and help people to connect with each other in this difficult time. 

TIMETABLE

19:30 – Welcome!
20:00 – Arshe reshte, a vegan or vegetarian noodle soup from Iran, will be served
21:00 –  Fire dance and story telling performance with live music
21:30 – Fire ritual
22:30 – The End

© Bram Callaert

We begin by welcoming the guests and inviting them to join the circle. This is followed by a fire dance with live music, inspired by ancient Iranian mythology. After the dance performance, we light the fire to mark the start of the ceremony. Guests can sit around the fire, share stories or jump over the fire, as is customary in the tradition. You can write down both negative and positive events from the past year on a piece of paper, as well as your wishes for the new year. The negative wishes can be thrown into the fire, while we keep the positive wishes as a sign of a new beginning.

Before the start of the festival, we gather brushwood. At sunset, after making one or more bonfires, we jump over the flames and sing ‘sorkhi-ye to az man, zardi-ye man az to’, which literally means ‘let your redness be mine, my paleness be yours’, or a local equivalent. This practice is considered a purification.

Free entrance, everyone is welcome!

In collaboration with Arshe vzw.
More information via ehsaninen@gmail.com

© Bram Callaert