Burning Wednesday is a multicultural event in celebration of fire on the last night of Wednesday before the end of ancient calendar years. Burning Wednesday is widely celebrated across the world. The festival will include multiple food vendors, a beer garden, art sales, music and DJ.
You can win a CAR! (Must RSVP)
Join us on March 19 at Emarcadero Marina Park South at 6 pm for one big Chaharshanbesuri celebration. The program features Deejay Al, celebrity guest performers, guest DJs, beer garden and other activities. You can also win multiple prizes including a CAR but you must RSVP for a chance to win. The rsvp link will be up soon. This is a family-friendly event. A variety of food will be available for purchase.
Message us for sponsorship & booth reservation!
Rules:
- NO Smoking
- NO Fireworks
- NO Open fire
- NO Drones
- NO Glass Bottles
- NO Marijuana
- NO Weapons
- NO merchant sales without approval
- NO Power generators
- NO Amplified sound except the main stage
About Burning Wednesday-
Ancient origin
The festival has its origin in ancient Iranian rituals. The ancient Iranians celebrated the festival of Hamaspathmaedaya (Hamaspaθmaēdaya), the last five days of the year in honor of the spirits of the dead, which is today referred to as Farvardinegan. They believed that the spirits of the dead would come for reunion. The seven holy immortals (Aməša Spənta) were honored, and were bidden a formal ritual farewell at the dawn of the New Year. The festival also coincided with festivals celebrating the creation of fire and humans. By the time of the Sasanian Empire, the festival was divided into two distinct pentads, known as the lesser and the greater panje. The belief had gradually developed that the "lesser panje" belonged to the souls of children and those who died without sin, while the "greater panje" was for all souls.
Qajar Empire
A custom once in vogue in Tehran was to seek the intercession of the so-called "Pearl Cannon" (Tup-e Morvārid) on the occasion of Charshanbe Suri. This heavy gun, which was cast by the foundry-man Ismāil Isfahāni in 1800, under the reign of Fath-Ali Shah of the Qajar dynasty, became the focus of many popular myths. Until the 1920s, it stood in Arg Square (میدان ارگ, Meydān-e Arg), to which the people of Tehran used to flock on the occasion of Charshanbe Suri. Spinsters and childless or unhappy wives climbed up and sat on the barrel or crawled under it, and mothers even made ill-behaved and troublesome children pass under it in the belief that doing so would cure their naughtiness. These customs died out in the 1920s, when the Pearl Cannon was moved to the Army's Officers' Club. There was also another Pearl Cannon in Tabriz. Girls and women used to fasten their dakhils (pieces of a paper or cloth inscribed with wishes and prayers) to its barrel on the occasion of Charshanbe Suri. In times, the cannon had been used as a sanctuary for political or non-political fugitives to be immune to arrest or to protest from family problems.
Sadegh Hedayat, an Iranian writer of prose fiction and short stories, has a book with the name of this cannon, Tup-e Morvārid, that criticize the old beliefs in Iranian folklore. The book also mentions the origin of the Pearl Cannon.
Today, the Pearl Cannon is placed in the opening of the Building Number 7 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 30th Tir Avenue, and the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran is still in argument with the ministry to displace the gun to a museum.
There will be a total of 5 prizes given away during the event. The 1st, 100th, 500th, 1000th, 2500th will be given away an award. The car will be given to the 2500th registrant of Free car & other prizes giveaway raffle or Car giveaway raffle + 2 beer drinks (discounted) rsvp. In the event of the number of registered attendees is less than 2500, the car may be given to the last registrant or not given away. The registration cut-off time is 9:30 pm of 3/19/19..
