The tradition comes under criticism almost every year. It is a pre-Islamic tradition based on Zoroastrianism and riles many clerics.
The Mehr news agency this week quoted Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi as denouncing Chaharshanbeh Souri, saying: “An intelligent person must not engage in such activities, especially since it can pose much danger. Many youth and youngsters have lost their eyes, faces and other parts of their bodies in these events. It is best that we eliminate such improper ceremonies and instead preserve positive ones.”
Makarem-Shirazi based his opposition chiefly on safety, though the clergy more commonly focuses on the tradition as a “superstition” unworthy of being practiced by good Muslims.
Chaharshanbeh Souri is celebrated on the night before the last Wednesday of the Iranian year, March 13 this year. One of the main activities of this night is building fires in the streets and jumping over them. An ancient chant calls for the fire to burn away all illnesses and deliver warm health to all.
A spokesman for another senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpay-egani, said: “This clerical leader does not approve of the Chahar-shanbeh Souri ceremony and regards it as a reaffirmation of the obsolete rites of the age of ignorance.”
He said the cleric has called on the people to eliminate such “superstitious” activities.
Supreme Leader Ali Kha-menehi spoke out against the fire-jumping tradition in 2009, saying it should be avoided because it has no roots in Islamic principles and creates “harm and corruption.” But he has been silent about it in the three years since then.