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Iran’s Jashn-e Sadeh, Festival of Fire and Blessing
“Is there any public festival we can attend during our visit to Iran?” It is one of the common questions of many travelers who want to visit Iran. The first thing you may notice after asking this question in related forums or from your Iranian friends is the absence of public festivals and social gatherings in current Iran. With few celebrations throughout a year, most of the Iranian holidays and ancient rituals are being held inside houses and mostly has changed to family gatherings. However, there are still a few ancient festivals being held in public places which are free for enthusiastic visitors to participate and watch; one of these festivals is Sadeh or Jashn-e Sadeh.
Jashn-e Sadeh which is being held usually on the 30th of January as a midwinter festival has an ambiguous origin. There are different stories about its history. One of which relates it to the story of the discovery of fire by Hushang, an ancient Persian king. This story has been even mentioned in Shahnameh, a great epic poem written in 1010 CE. The story says when Hushang and his attendants are passing by amount, they see a snake. Hushang wants to kill the snake by throwing a stone, however, the snake escapes and the stone struck another stone resulting to a huge fire which also burns the snake, the symbol of wickedness and Satan. The story goes on to say that from that time, people would celebrate the discovery of fire on that day.
There other stories referring to the origin of human beings, one of which says it is the day in which the number of people on earth reached one hundred. This story can somehow justify the day being named “Sadeh”.
A common belief is that the term “Sadeh” refers to the word Sad which means one hundred in Persian language and it comes from the fact that the celebration was being held one hundred days after the beginning of great winter, starting approximately at 23rd of October (in Persian ancient calendar, winter has 150 days and summer had 210 days). The day is also 100 days and nights before spring when the harshness of winter has been finished and people would gather t to celebrate the earth beginning to warming up again.
Is Sadeh a Zoroastrian Festival?
Though like all Zoroastrian festivals and rituals, fire and light perform an important role in Sadeh, the festival has been not mentioned in any Zoroastrian script. Also, the celebration is being held all around Iran and among other ethnic groups other than Zoroastrians with different names. It was, in fact, the most important ritual to celebrate fire in ancient Iran after Nowruz and Mehregan. Some believe the ceremony was being held even before Zoroastrianism. So due to its unclear origin, it cannot be said that Jashn-e Sadeh is a Zoroastrian festival for sure.
How is Sadeh Celebrated around Iran?
People usually prepare for the celebration a few days before by gathering firewood in a place chosen before, usually on top of a nearby hill or in open space areas outside cities. As all people usually cooperated in gathering woods, the ceremony turned to an opportunity to celebrate the collective collaboration. As we mentioned before, it is not clear if Sadeh is a Zoroastrian festival or not, but the ceremony is being held mainly in Zoroastrian area in current Iran, mainly in Kerman and Yazd.
On the 10th day of Bahman (the 11th month of Persian calendar), people assemble around the firewood and kindle the fire. A ritual which is done by young people who follow a Zoroastrian priest called Mubad. They all wearing white cloths as the symbol of purity, walk around the pile several times with torches in their hand and then light the fire while a Mubad is reciting verses from Avesta, the holy book in Zoroastrianism.
Framers usually participate in gathering the woods even with carrying a single branch in order to have a share of ashes when the fire turns off. They would spread the ashes on their lands to make and threw them on their lands to make the lands fertile.
In Kerman, people close they stores sooner in this day. Women would cook a kind of soup and family members gather together, eat the soup, fruits, and nuts, talk and have fun till evening when all people celebrate Sadeh around a bonfire in an open space. The fire burns all the night to defeat darkness.