"Photo of the Week"

This is my response to the contest held by @aviral123 - Contest 🏆🏆 !! Photo of the Week #1 in the @steemladies community.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

This is a picture of one of the Iranian traditions called the Haji Firuz. I had clicked it during my visit to Iran. Since this is only a one picture story, I felt it would be apt to tell you all the story of Haji Firuz of Iran. Watching this ritual was not a part of my itinerary but it just happened that we were in a park and there was this tradition which was going on.

Haji Firuz is also called the Santa Claus of Iran. Basically this character he wears red clothes and his face is painted black and he goes around playing a musical instrument. There are multiple stories around this character but in the recent times the character is celebrated during the spring season which is the most important one for Iranians the Nowruz.

His story says that he is a symbol of abolition of slavery which makes sense to me. He is not a fictional character. Haji Firuz was a black man who was a slave with one of the wealthy families. One fine day they decided to set him free. When he got his freedom out of joy he turned on to the streets singing and dancing and bringing cheer and happiness in to people's lives. Initially he was not taken very positively in the culture as the songs he sang sounded more of a social protest. But with time he started coming out as a joyful character.

In the same time, he came to the notice of the king and the king appointed him to spread the word of Nowruz celebrations in the neighboring countries. He travelled to different places singing and dancing and spreading the news. Nowruz is the New Year for Iranians. From there on he became the symbol of their Nowruz celebrations in the country and also became the symbol of joy for the Iranians. The Nowruz is celebrated on the day of the equinox where the mark of change of seasons happen from winter to spring and beginning of the harvesting season. Celebrations are done in a very grand way by people singing and dancing and then there are also fire rituals around it.

Till date there are some controversies in the Country around this character but it goes on with them and he is an important character in all their celebrations.

In this picture he is not dancing but they are just going around the park entertaining people. It was the celebration of the Iranian film festival and they were part of the celebrations.

I will like to invite @weisser-rabe, @stef1 and @petface to participate in the contest.

Thank you for visiting my blog. 👼🏻👼🏻💖💖🌹🌺🌸

"Unlimited Abundance, Blissful Happiness and Unconditional Love"