Party time!
It's been snowing and raining for about 20 hours in Tehran! Well in 26 years of my life I had never seen snow this time of year! It's practically spring and all trees have blossomed, new green leaves have grown on branches and I'm worried that this snow is going to freeze them all to death! Our farmers are surely going to suffer loss of their crop due to this sudden cold. It's so cold that I'm sitting here typing with my ski socks and warm cardigan and you know what? I'm still cold, well not cold actually, I'm freezing!! I don’t know what this raining and snowing is all about but I prefer to enjoy nice and fresh spring weather now after a long winter, although I love rain and snow!
Ok now that we're past our weather report (!!) let me tell you about another one of our traditional ceremonies of this time of year. Tomorrow night is the last Tuesday night of the year, it's called Wednesday party. We always celebrate it by lighting fire and jumping over it! Don’t ask me why because I have heard so many odd and contradicting stories about it that I'm all confused! As usual I must ask Khodadad to talk about its history because it goes way back in our history, more than 2000 years ago I presume, as fire used to have holy status in our ancient history and religion.
Well anyways, we have this celebration in which boys and girls go out and have fun while jumping over fire singing songs which talk of love and health. Then boys wear a woman's clothing which covers their face and body completely (chador) and go to neighbors' doors asking for treats. They take a bowl with a spoon with themselves and make noise by hitting the spoon over the bowl to get treats into their bowls; things like sweets, candy, confetti, chocolate, etc.
Since a couple of years ago the regime of the Islamic Republic suddenly decided that this cannot be simply because people were just enjoying it too much and it had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, it's all Iranian! Well God forbid we have just a little bit of fun especially if it means girls and boys laugh and have fun TOGETHER! God forbid!! Sacrilege!! So what they did is that they formed hardliner groups which attacked us while we were partying in the streets. They hit boys because of playing with fire and once they cut a girl's hair right in front of me!! Her sin was that she had not covered her hair completely under the scarf. I remember vividly how the bearded guy in black grabbed her hair and cut it with a blade in his hands while shouting, "now that you cannot cover yourself properly, I'll make it easy for you!!!"
Now this time of year has turned into a hidden battle between our youth and the police and militia. We all go walking and boys secretly make this extremely loud exploding stuff that they throw to the ground. We call it grenade 'cause it has a horribly loud sound! The police are usually unable to identify the person who throws it because there are so many people and it could have been thrown from any direction! Well the noise and the smoke are really difficult to bear but as I said it has turned into a battle to show our frustration with the regime! A lot of people get hurt while making this dangerous stuff but still they do it!
I never understood why they started fighting with us and now it seems they are ready to make amends! The mayor has announced that they are going to help people celebrate this night in big squares in the city. Well you see, they have tricked us so many times that I just do not believe it! There must be a scheme behind it all! Anyhow most of us do not risk facing humiliating remarks of the militia and police and throw wild parties in our houses instead! We're gonna party whether they assist or resist!
