Press: 4shanbesoori a success for Iranian people

ALL related Images to do with 4shanbe soori celebrations by press and media


New York Times

Iranians Defy a Ban in a Display of Dissent

Iranians defied a ban on events marking a traditional festival on Tuesday, turning an annual celebration into a show of anti government sentiment.
Also Tuesday, the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi appeared to challenge the authority of the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, by assigning a name to the new Iranian year, a traditional prerogative of the ayatollah.

The celebration of the Feast of Fire, an ancient Iranian festival with Zoroastrian roots, has been banned every year since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and every year Iranians have celebrated anyway, setting off firecrackers, dancing in the streets and leaping over bonfires.

But this year, the opposition decided to make a political statement and urged supporters to celebrate the day. In response, the government took extra measures to ban celebrations.

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CNN
Iranians celebrate holiday under police crackdown

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranians marked a holiday that leads up to the Persian new year under the watchful eyes of police Tuesday night after the Islamic republic's supreme leader tried to discourage the celebrations.

Thousands of people turned out, some in groups as large as 400 people, to dance, listen to music and light bonfires in side streets around Tehran on the festival of Chaharshanbe Soori. But unlike other holidays in recent months, there was no immediate sign that the observance was becoming a platform for protests against the country's leadership.

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ABC News
Bonfires and Fireworks Light up Iran as Crowds Refuse to Abandon an Ancient Persian Ritual

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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LA Times
IRAN: Explosions and heavy security amid celebrations of ancient fire festival
Firecrackers and homemade explosives were heard throughout the Iranian capital on Tuesday night as Iranians took to the streets in celebration of Chaharshanbeh Souri, an ancient Zoroastrian fire festival held ahead of the Persian New Year, amid a heavy police and security presence.

Opposition supporters had vowed to turn the event this year into a protest against the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And security forces took no chances.

On the streets of Tehran, armed security forces were out in full force, especially in main squares where protests had taken place earlier. Droves of helmeted "special guards" on motorcycles rumbled past stunned pedestrians. Plainclothes security officials oversaw checkpoints, pulling over cars filled with young people. Police officers on sidewalks could be seen ordering kids to open up their rucksacks.

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Huffington Post
Iran's Latest Fatwa: A Fiery Fury

On this day every year for millennia, Iranians have started fires. Big bonfires and tiny ones made of tinder. Street blazes and backyard flickers.

They jump over these flames during the ancient fire festival, Chaharshanbeh Suri, ushering in the festivities of the Norooz Festival that marks the vernal equinox worldwide, and the New Year for Iranians and many other nations.

At times like this, when tensions are peaking in Iranian politics, today's fire festival gets more than heated javascript:void(0)as the public heads for the streets building bonfires, setting off firecrackers, and lighting up the night in defiance of the government's disapproval of the pre-Islamic tradition.

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