Nowruz - Persian Fire Festival

The 25th annual Nowruz Fire Festival took place at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver Tuesday night. The traditional Persian festival is held prior the arrival of spring (Nowruz), which is considered the Persian new year. It always takes place on the eve of the last Wednesday before Nowruz, which falls on Friday this year.

The festival saw hundreds of Persians congregate at Ambleside Park to enjoy live music, dance performances, Persian food and fire jumping.

The fire jumping is a tradition of the fire festival that is observed since at least 1700 B.C. You jump over the fire while saying a little chant - "My yellow is yours, your red is mine". My Persian friend explained to me that the fire is suppose to take away sickness (represented by the yellow of the fire) and give health for the new year (represented by the red). It's also fun to jump over the fire!

Wish lanterns was also sent off into the night sky.

Cazba was serving up kabobs and some kind of soup noodle. Unfortunately, it was the only food stall in the festival and the line was unbelievably long. Some people waited for two hours only to be disappointed to find out the food ran out. So either get to the festival super early or eat before. It might be a good idea for festival organizers to add a few more food vendors!

The kabobs smells good though!

Sepideh, a famous Persian singer held up the energy of the festival and was the biggest attraction of the night (hence the $10 admission fee).