On the last Wednesday of the Zoroastrian year, just before the Spring Equinox, bonfires are lit in the streets of Iran and people jump through them, to exorcise the old year and its misfortunes and bring about the regeneration of the world through the new one.

The last Wednesday before Noruz is the day of the Chahar Shanbeh Suri bonfire festival (literally, the “Eve of Red Wednesday"). Bonfires are lit in public places to exorcise the night and the forces of darkness (fire is a sacred element in Zoroastrianism), and people leap through them shouting:

Give me your beautiful red colour
And take back my sickly pallor!

This evokes the rebirth and regeneration of the world after the onslaught of darkness through the power of light and fire. Like many New Year celebrations, the coming of the Zoroastrian New Year is not necessarily something you can take for granted.

The age-old battle between the dual principles of good and evil, embodied in the figures of the Wise Lord Ahura Mazda and his enemy, the evil Ahriman, is re-enacted symbolically in the celebration, through elements such as the bonfire dance, and hopefully, if everything goes well, spring will come and bring new life to a tired, battle-weary world.

This last Wednesday of the year is also traditionally a day on which the dead come back to visit the living. Children wrapped in shrouds, representing these ghosts, run through the streets in the light of the bonfire, banging pots and pans with spoons called Gashog-Zani to exorcise evil spirits and usher the passing of the last “unlucky Wednesday” of the year.

Similar to Halloween celebrations in the West, the children knock on the doors of houses and ask for sweets and treats.