🎆 Chaharshanbe Suri

Chaharshanbe Suri, the fire festival at the threshold of Nowruz, is held on the eve of the year's last Wednesday. People leap over bonfires chanting "zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man" — giving their sickly yellow to the fire and taking its healthy red.

Spoon-banging (qāshoq-zani), problem-solving nuts and doorway divination fill the rest of the night. The sur in its name means both "red" and "feast": the red night before the year renews.