Sadeh is also known to be a Zoroastrian celebration of fire and driving the cold winter away with the new light and warmth of spring and summer. It is a time of chasing away falsehood with the light of truth. On this holiday children go around door to door and collect wood for the fire. While adults are in charge of the fire pit, children are running all over their neighborhoods looking for old tree limbs and other pieces of wood for the fire. It should be noted that contrary to myth, Zoroastrians do not ‘worship’ fire. Fire is sacred because it is what really separates human beings from animals. Both man and animal can think, reason, and make tools. But only man can make fire. According to Zoroastrians fire was the ‘breakthrough technology’ that helped gets it started. It was a direct gift from God, given with the mandate for man to be responsible for it.

According to many scholars, after Ziarid and Ghaznavid Dynasties, the tradition was virtually lost even amongst the Zoroastrians. In Pahlavi era (1925-1979) it was revived and adopted as a major celebration by the whole Zoroastrian community and presently it is increasingly popular among the rest of the Iranians. Today, this special event of Sadeh seems to have no religious significance for the majority of Iranians and no specific rituals are involved other than torching bonfire at sunset and having a good time and therefore keeping up with the ancient traditions when much fun used to be practiced.

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