![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Iranian_Fire_Festival_Is_Making_Clerical_Regime_Nervous.jpg\" "\\"Iranian_Fire_Festival_Is_Making_Clerical_Regime_Nervous\\"")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By\u00a0Sedighe Shahrokhi<\/p>\n
The people of Iran are preparing to celebrate the Persian New Year \u2013 Nowruz, in the next few days. However, before the start of the new Iranian calendar is marked, the people will be celebrating \u201cCharshanbe Soori\u201d, or the \u201cFestival of Fire\u201d. This year it will be celebrated on 19th March.<\/p>\n
It is a much anticipated celebration for the Iranian people. In an outside space, the people prepare by gathering brushwood and bits of wood. Small bonfires are made with the wood and they are lit at sunset. The people then jump over the flames in an act of purification.<\/p>\n
The people, while jumping over the fire, say \u201cSorkhie to az man, zardie man az to\u201d (\u201cI give my ill to the fire and receive the redness and warmth from the fire\u201d). The purpose is to bring happiness and enlighten them for the new year that is about to start. It is a sign of hope and positivity and is a celebration that many Iranians really look forward to.<\/p>\n
The Iranian regime, on the other hand, is not so keen for this festival to be celebrated because it means it is a time of meditation and deep thinking for the people. Naturally, when a new year is approaching, it makes people think about the year they have just had and renews determination to make the next one better.<\/p>\n
![\"Iranian_Fire_Festival_Is_Making_Clerical_Regime_Nervous-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/03\/Iranian_Fire_Festival_Is_Making_Clerical_Regime_Nervous-1.jpg\" "\\"Iranian_Fire_Festival_Is_Making_Clerical_Regime_Nervous-1\\"")
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the people of Iran, the past few decades have been full of oppression, suppression, the denial of human rights and bloodshed. The Iranian regime has just marked the 40th year since the Islamic Revolution and it is a milestone that the people wish they could have avoided.<\/p>\n
During the light festival this year, there is no doubt that a large portion of the population will be consolidating their pledges to keep pressuring the regime until it collapses so that they, and future generations, can finally experience freedom.<\/p>\n
In preparation for the New Year celebrations, the clerical regime has its security forces in place, ready to pounce when it feels that intervention is needed. The people have been told that fireworks are banned this year and businesses have been warned that they would lose their trading permits.<\/p>\n
The very presence of security forces on the streets is intended to dissuade people from gathering in public. However, the Iranian Resistance has called on the people to carry on as they have done in the past few years \u2013 that is to use the light festival and new year celebrations as a time to make their discontent heard.<\/p>\n
The MEK has \u201cresistance units\u201d inside the country that organise anti-regime events and ensure that the people are heard and supported.<\/p>\n
The fact that the regime is preparing to confront the people that gather in the streets just goes to show how fragile it is. The clerical rule is hanging on by a thread and the people present a very real danger to its future. And they have vowed to maintain pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Sedighe Shahrokhi The people of Iran are preparing to celebrate the Persian New Year – Nowruz, in the next few days. However, before the start of the new Iranian calendar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":52884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[178],"class_list":{"0":"post-25974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-society","8":"tag-save"},"yoast_head":"\n