Party or Protest? Fiery Night in Iran
abcnews
17-Mar-2010 (one comment)

The bangs and whistles of fireworks blasted through Iran's capital Tuesday night in defiance of the religious establishment to abandon an ancient Persian ritual involving bonfires and amateur fireworks.

Reformist website Balatarin cited clashes in Tehran, with Basij firing tear gas at the crowds and reports that revelers burned portraits of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Other witnesses told ABC News the streets were relatively calm.

"'It's like a big party, with lots of police," said Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American journalist based in Tehran.

"Pretty much every major square had lots of riot police, but they were just standing and watching," Rezaian said.

Khamenei had denounced the yearly holiday, known as Chahar Shanbeh Suri or "Red Wednesday," saying it creates "harm and corruption." Other clerics also preached against the ritual during Friday prayers, calling it "impious."

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Anonymous Observer

Festive Iranian culture = Death of morbid regime

by Anonymous Observer on Thu Mar 18, 2010 07:13 AM PDT

Our culture, at least that of pre-Islam Iran, was (and is) a festive culture.  It centers around celebrations, such as Jashn-e Sadeh, Norooz, Mehregan, etc.  Did you know that the Arabic word for "festival" is "mehrejan"?  See, when Arabs invaded Persia, they saw Iranians celebrate Mehregan.  that was the FIRST time that they had actually seen a festival.  So they borrowed the name for anything that was a festival or a party, and because there is no letter "G" in Arabic (G as in Gol or flower), they changed it to "J".  Hence, the word "mehrejan".  It is used to this day.

Anyway, the IRI culture is a morbid culture that revolves around the celebration of death (Ashura, rozeh khooni, etc.).  One way to show defiance of the regime to fight them cuturally, and to show how our society is different from the culture, and that's by dancing, singing and showing happiness.  

Power to the Iranian people!!! 


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