The mid-winter Jashn-e Sadeh festival once celebrated mainly in Iran is now observed in several countries
Parinaz Gandhi
The chief mobed starts praying Atash Nyaish on reaching the pyre of wood. Clasping each other’s hands, mobeds and mobedyars in white along with the laity encircle the fireplace three times in a clockwise direction after sundown. "The fire has to be lit at the words Aesmo zasto, Baresmo zasto (from the Atash Nyaish),” states Mobed Mehraban Firouzgary who led the Jashn-e Sadeh celebrations in Tehran this year when Zoroastrians and Muslims gathered together around the bonfire. "Aesmo means burning wood, zasto, offered with extended hands, Baresmo, tied up bunch of twigs,” elaborates Firouzgary explaining how the bonfire is ignited......