According to my informant, before Nowruz (Persian new year, which is celebrated on the first day of Spring) there is Chaharshambe-suri (Wednesday Feast), which is the fire jumping festival. Chaharshambe means Wednesday and Suri means red. The celebrations usually start in the early evening. Family and friends typically go to each other’s homes and jump over burning logs that are lined up in front of each other. While they jump over these logs they sing a song which translates into English as  “my yellow is yours, your red is mine”. Basically this means the fire is taking all of the bad things away from you, such as illness, and problems and replacing them with warmth and energy, which are symbolic of the red flame.

The person I interviewed said that this she really enjoys this night because it brings all of her family and close friends together. Before they jump over the burning logs they eat traditional Persian food, which consists of beef and chicken kabob, a variety of different rice dishes, and different stews. Towards the end of the night they drink sweet Persian tea, which she described as tasting similar to earl grey tea. There is no significance between the food and jumping over the logs, it is merely part of her personal tradition of the evening.