Planet Iran Editor’s note: Chahar-Shanbeh Souri (direct translation is Wednesday Festivity) the feast of fire. This celebration heralds the approaching of Norooz, the Iranian new year, a pre-Islamic celebration of Spring and the vernal equinox on March 21st. Chahar-Shanbeh Souri is celebrated on the last Wednesday eve (Tuesday night) before Norooz. People build small bonfires and jump over the flames to purify and purge their spirits of all the negativity and pain of the passing year so that they can begin the new year with a fresh outlook and jovial disposition. During this celebration, it is also customary to light sparklers and throw fireworks. It is also customary for people to do a form of ‘trick or treating’ where people from neighborhoods go around from house to house collecting food for the poor.

Since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has done everything in it’s power to suppress Iranians from celebrating Persian festivals and celebrations, calling them pagan in an attempt to eradicate pre-Islamic Persian heritage. This specific celebration has always been an annual bone of contention and a sort of reckoning between the Iranian people who hold on steadfast and true to their Persian heritage and the Coup d’Etat regime whose official ‘cultural’ identity is an arcane hodgepodge of Messianic Islam and various other ideologies and movements thrown in for good measure.

As the wave of protests in Iran continues look for the next wave, on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 16th and 17th. Iranians throughout Iran have begun to prepare for this celebration and calls for protests has begun to ring out all across Iran. On Chahar-Shanbeh Souri Iranians have vowed to turn out en mass all around Iran in order to show their love of their culture, customs, identity and homeland and their contempt for the Islamic regime and to continue to call for regime change.

February 27th update : Received reports from activists inside Iran indicates that the regime in Tehran, fearing the outcome of the upcoming protests have begun transferring intelligence agents normally stationed in various provinces throughout Iran, to Tehran.

February 28th update : Jafar Dowlatabadi, Tehran’s public prosecutor announced on Iranian television that Tehran’s judges and police have been instructed to deal with anyone who even thinks of protesting on the occasion of Chahar-Shanbeh Souri with the necessary and utmost possible force. Dowlatabadi who was speaking to members of the revolutionary guards at the introduction ceremony of the new district 16 ‘holy mission’ said: “Our courts have been alerted to continue working until late hours and longer shifts during this period. We call on parents to control their children and prevent what should be a festive season to turn into agony.”

Dowlatabadi also announced that the regime’s security forces has confronted store owners selling firecrackers and sparklers and has forbidden the sales of such items for the cellebration. He also mentioned:”Our team has begun thinking ahead in order to confront the enemy’s actions and behavior and in the future things are going to take a whole new shape. At this juncture we are following various other leads of various chat rooms and think tanks inside and outside Iran who are plotting against our holy revolution; we are well aware of the fact that they will do everything to implement their evil new plans but we’re absolutely ready to confront them.”

Below: Iran in the past 9 months…WE ARE STILL STANDING; GO GREEN!

On Chahar-Shanbeh Souri, with the slogan “Death to the core of the Supremel Leader”, we will target the heart of the regime

March 15: According to received reports from Tehran, with one day to go, as an intimidation tactic prior to the Tuesday celebration of Chaharshanbeh Souri, the Iranian regimes has flooded various city squares with heavy artillery and security forces already. Helicopters have littered the skies of Tehran.

Also the detention booths set up throughout Tehran have been taken away for fear of attack, ‘foul play’ or fire at the hands of protesters. As of Wednesday, March 10th, the regime’s security forces began breaking down the cabins that had previously been built for temporary detention of area protesters.

Also as of Friday, March 12, road blocks have been set up throughout Tehran and drivers are stopped, their i.d.’s are checked and their vehicles are searched.