In addition to St. Patty’s Day, today is also Chaharshanbeh Soori, “an ancient Persian festival dating at least back to 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era. The festival of fire is a prelude to the ancient Norouz festival, which marks the arrival of spring and revival of nature. Chaharshanbeh Soori, is celebrated the last Tuesday night of the year. The word Chahar Shanbeh means Wednesday and Suri is red. Bonfires are lit at sunset and the idea is to not let the sun set. Bonfires are lit to keep the sun alive till early hours of the morning. The celebration usually starts in the evening. On this occasion people make bonfires on the streets and jump over them”
This is my kind of holiday! Get together with your neighbors to build fires in the streets and jump over them? Count me right in.
I thought: “I must somehow celebrate Chaharshanbeh Soori.”
But in NYC, the police tend to frown upon lighting bonfires in the street, even for holidays. So I texted a few friends asking if I could come over and build a small symbolic fire in their backyards. Strangely, few of my peeps returned my calls. Hmmmmmm.
Then SuperForester Medi came to the rescue!
I called my friend Medi and he was like, of course! He said that he’d even set the fire up ahead of time so we wouldn’t have to build it in the dark. Sweet! So, in a few hours, when Medi’s done with his kapoiera class, I’ll ride my bike over to his casa in the East Village and we’ll bring in the Spring with a proper fire jumping. What should I wear? I wish I had leather pants.
I cannot wait! I’ll let y’all know as soon as it’s over how it went.
Happy Chaharshanbe Suri to all SuperForesters everywhere! And a very happy St. Patrick’s Day!
(image via flicker user Hamed Masoumi)
(image via flickr user Maziar Hooshidar)
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