Iran Analysis: What Does the Fire Festival Mean?

Sometimes a celebration should be considered first as a celebration.

After months of reporting on tension and conflict, it was a pleasure to watch the joy of Iranians on Chahrshanbeh Suri, the eve of Iranian New Year celebration of the renewal of fire. Although there was a heavy security presence in main streets and squares, this did not --- as The Washington Post reported --- "block traditional celebrations".

Latest Iran Video: Two Views of the Fire Festival (16 March)

Instead, on side streets and outside residences across Iran, people gathered to set off firecrackers, sing, dance, and jump over the small fires which hark back to Zoroastrian tradition. An EA reader eagerly wrote us, "Our family live in a provincial town. It was rocking tonight with the sound of fireworks! Cud be heard in every part of the town :-)" Even in Press TV's state-sanitised video of events, there is the pleasure of an elderly woman gingerly skipping in her long dress over a few inches of flame.



I never had the sense, despite some eager chatter, that this was going to be an occasion for bring-down-the-Government marches. Some in the Western media, coming late to the party, had the misleading impression that this was going to be an attempted recovery of the blunted rally of 22 Bahman (11 February) --- The Guardian, which set up emergency LiveBlog coverage, seemed particularly disappointed --- but this was not a make-or-break Green Movement moment.

Instead, this was an occasion to celebrate Iranian identity and to have some fun. For me, that seems to be more than enough to observe and praise.

Sometimes a celebration should then be considered political.

But even if the videos coming out of Iran were limited and of basic quality --- the regime is still waging a cyber-war against communication --- and even if the direct protests of "Death to the Dictator" were scattered, don't be mistaken: even having fun and "being Iranian" can be a political act.

Ironically, we have the Supreme Leader to thank for making this clear. His clumsy intervention that Chahrshanbeh Suri “has no religious basis and is harmful and must be avoided” turned an appearance at the Fire Festival into a gesture of disregard or even defiance.

He may be Supreme Leader, but this was how far Ayatollah Khamenei's legitimacy extends. This morning, after thousands (how many thousands?) celebrated in his or her way, the Supreme Leader's "fatwa" has reportedly been removed from his website.

To show authority, security forces closed stores and shopping malls in Tehran during the afternoon and banned motorcycles in the city. Municipal garbage containers were collected to prevent their being used to make bonfires. Thousands of officers were placed at the capital's main gathering points. Neighborhood police officers went door to door warning residents that large celebrations were banned.

As thousands (how many thousands?) still sang and danced and set off their firecrackers, was this a sign of regime legitimacy or a sign of forced authority? As thousands (how many thousands?) shared the festivities with friends and family, was this a sign of confidence or a sign of fear?

As we closed coverage last night, the message came in from a Tehran resident, via another EA reader, who had been told of "Western" reports that nothing political had occurred during Chahrshanbeh Suri. The resident, after an evening of joy and celebration, simply responded:

"In Iran everything is political."

Comments

[Tori]

One of my friends in Iran told me that Chahrshanbeh Suri was no big deal until the Islamic regime tried to block it. My own experience from the time I spent in Iran was that the more the regime tried to stop celebrations, the more adamant people became about celebrating.

For my friends, it seems that the feeling of being able to celebrate together last night with strangers despite all that has happened in the past few months and years was a victory in an of itself.

[James the Hype]

I think your analysis is absolutely spot on. Most of the chatter that I receive from Iran pointed to no formal protests being planned. Many on Twitter wanted it to happen, we live blogged some of the event to make sure that nothing ridiculous broke out, but I think that those of us who follow Iran closely weren't surprised at what we found.

Unfortunately, some in the media were expecting the "bring-down-the-government" marches, and so they were disappointed. The challenge, then, is to stop them from putting disappointment with Feb. 11 and disappointment with last night together. I think there was little reason to be disappointed about February 11, 22 Bahman, and the level of defiance displayed last night actually beat my expectations, so I would count that as a very minor victory for the green movements.

The Iranian regime spent TONS of money on security for this event. The green movement spent no time or energy into planning protests. We'll see how long the government can lose that game before changes are made.

[perry1949]

When I saw the reports of heavy security coverage I was afraid there might be trouble but as the night wore on I saw very little of trouble but many reports of people just having fun. I'm sure those of us following along on twitter were very relieved and very happy for all the people of Iran. Here's hoping that these times of good cheer may last into the future and the people get what they desire.

[Analyse: Was hat das Feuerfest]

[...] März 2010 von Julia Veröffentlicht auf Enduring America am 17. März 2010 Quelle (Englisch): http://enduringamerica.com/2010/03/17/iran-analysis-what-does-the-fire-festival-mean/ Deutsche Übersetzung: Julia, bei Weiterveröffentlichung bitte Link [...]

[Bijan]

Well said Scott.

This is very much a night where everyone "pushes the envelope" and causes a little trouble, acts a little deviant. The western media that was stagging this as the next big event for the Greens was uninformed of the nature of the celebration and what it means to Iranians. I even saw chatter amoungst "activists" trying to set the stage for CHarshanbeh souri to be another bahman 22, as Scott points out, but as we saw this was just not to be.

I was happy to see all the videos with people dancing in the street, jumping the fires. Yes there were some pockets of "protest" with the anti regime chants but as Tori said it was good to see people just having fun. They have been through so much it was more than deserved.

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