In Scotland, fire festivals originating from Viking tradition, such as the one in Lerwick called Up Helly Aa, mark the end of winter. The largest celebration takes place in Edinburgh on Hogmanay, the night before New Year’s Day, and is known for a procession in which tens of thousands of people parade through the city streets holding torches. On this occasion, men dressed in Viking attire accompany a longship, a Viking boat, and the ceremonial burning of which marks the beginning of the New Year celebration.
Edinburgh, celebration at Hogmanay, night
On the eve of New Year’s Eve
Catalan people celebrate La Patum de Berga before Easter, a ceremony originating from ancient times, connected to the spring solstice, which has over time become part of the Christian ritual. On the main city square, a dance in which numerous mythical characters take turns is accompanied by torches and many fireworks.
Fifty days before Nowruz, the Persian New Year that falls on the spring solstice, Iranians celebrate the fire festival called Sadeh. For this ceremony, which has very ancient origins and is usually associated with the Zoroastrian cult, boys from the surrounding hills bring dry branches which are placed in a pit dug in front of the temple entrance. Men maintain the fire throughout the night, and in the morning, women come to take the embers with which they will bless their hearths. The remaining fire is stored in the temple. Sadeh is dedicated to the victory of light and warmth over the cold and darkness of winter.
Nachi-no-Hi-Matsuri, the Japanese fire ceremony held at the waterfall
A fiery procession with torches in Liestal, Switzerland Hey!
Japan is, alongside India, a country with probably the highest number of fire festivals in the world. The contents are very diverse. Nachi-no-Hi-Matsuri is one of the top three. It belongs to the Shinto tradition and is held on July 14th. In the Kumano mountains in Wakayama prefecture, there is the largest Japanese waterfall called Nachi-no-Otaki, which is 133 meters high and is considered a deity by the Japanese. Twelve portable shrines, ten meters high and with numerous mirrors, as well as twelve large torches weighing fifty kilograms, are carried by priests along the path towards the waterfall. The shrines are the abodes of the Kumano gods throughout the twelve months of the year. The torches and the droplets of water splashing from the waterfall are meant to cleanse them and consecrate the following year.
Another interesting fire festival is associated with the Chinese New Year and is celebrated on February 14th. It is celebrated in a similar way from South Korea to Japan, and we highlight the Hiburi Kamakura festival in Akita prefecture in northern Japan. For this festival, bags of rice are placed in the fire. There are ropes that are one meter long. The participants of the ceremony then spin around themselves while the rope burns or the bag falls apart. The purpose is to drive away difficulties from the fields and enable a good harvest.
Undoubtedly, the most important fire ceremony in India is the five-day celebration called Diwali, or Deepavali, which means “Row of Lights” and is celebrated at the end of October or beginning of November, twenty days after Dussehra, according to the Hindu lunar calendar. Diwali is an official holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji. It is preceded by another fire ceremony – Timiti, a ritual of walking on hot coals that marks the end of a two-month purification ritual. Diwali is a festival of light that celebrates the victory of justice over spiritual darkness, the victory of good over evil. Originally, it was a celebration of harvest with prayers and sacrificial offerings to Lakshmi, the goddess of benevolence, abundance, and prosperity. The third day is considered the most important. Families wake up at dawn to bathe in an oil bath. Then they dress in traditional costumes and go to the temple for prayer. Small clay oil lamps are lit around houses and inside homes, burning all day long. The doors are decorated with fresh mango leaves, and the threshold is adorned with kolams, symbolic drawings in vibrant colors, often in the form of a mandala, which welcome the goddess Lakshmi. On the fourth evening, oil lamps dedicated to the goddess Lakshmi and the god Ganesha, the god of wisdom and a auspicious beginning, are lit in the streets and squares.
In the Far East, rituals involving fire are very common and performed daily, such as the Homa ritual. Different forms of this ritual are present not only in Hindu tradition, but also in Buddhist, Jain, and other cults. Typically, they involve the burning of consecrated fire, the invocation of a specific deity, and the offering of sacrificial offerings.
Gods and elements play a significant role in these rituals. Why did our ancestors worship fire with such devotion? Was it out of fear and reverence, as the positivist scientific current has claimed for centuries? According to this interpretation, people in the pre-logical period of history used fantasy to comprehend incomprehensible natural phenomena. They worshipped them in an attempt to protect themselves from the dangers of the unknown, the strange, and the fascinating. And is there anything more fascinating than fire, whether it be flames, lightning, or the heat and light of the sun?
The Hiburi Kamakura ceremony in northern Japan
But hear, oh human troubles,
Mortals who were once foolish,
Blessed with reason, I give you knowledge!
Yet I will not use harsh words to insult,
Instead, I will prove goodness with my gift.
He, who looked before but saw in vain,
And listened but did not hear, like a dream’s image,
For a long, long time he mixed everything
Without a head.
Today, modern sciences such as quantum physics, ecology, systemic biology, psychology and others, gradually invalidate the Cartesian-mechanistic view of the world and come to the realization that the universe is a living, interconnected, and interactive whole. Similarly, the philosophy of history, another relatively young scientific discipline, changes our notions of ancient cultures and their knowledge, realizing that what was previously considered prelogical and childish contains a deeper meaning.
Diwali, the festival of lights in India
The four elements interpenetrate each other, starting from fire, the most subtle, to earth, the grossest material form. Fire is the elemental force that enlivens, stimulates, and transforms the lower three states. In the Rig Veda (X -190,1,3) we read:
From the blazing fire,
The Consistent Creator created the Sun and the Moon,
And the day and the earth,
And the aerial space,
Then the world.
Plato in Timaeus writes that the elements originate from each other with mathematical precision, and he develops a theory according to which they create and dissolve based on mutual attraction and repulsion. complex bodies.’,
‘Diwali Celebration’,
‘Alessandro Marchesini, Consecration of the Vestal Virgin’,
‘Jean-Simon Berthélemy, Prometheus creates man’,
‘Most of the mentioned aspects of the symbolism of fire can be seen in the oldest and most respected deity of the ancient Indian pantheon represented in the Rig Veda, Agni. He is fire and the god of fire. He is associated with all other fire gods, whether it be Surya (Sun, stellar fire), Ushas (Dawn, internal fire), Indra (ethereal fire), etc.’,
‘In the Atharva Veda it is written: Agni is found in the earth, Agni is found in plants, Agni is in water, Agni is in stones, Agni is in humans, as well as in cows and horses. Furthermore: The Sun is in the sky, air in the air, fire on the earth,…’,
‘In all cultures of the world, we encounter similar symbolic traits of fire gods, whether they are all attributed to one deity, or are divided among several different gods. For example, in Greek culture, besides Prometheus symbolizing the fire of the mind, there is O Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, Hephaestus, the god of forge fire, and Helios, the god of stellar fire. In Egypt, the ancient deity Ptah is the god of creative intelligence and divine wisdom, with similar attributes as the Greek Prometheus, while Horus represents the fire of the sun and is described in a similar way to Agni. The ancient Mexicans worshipped Huehueteotl, whose name means “Ancient-ancient god of fire,” representing the omnipotent god of creation, the master of proximity and unity.
Meanings of the fire ceremonies:
Although we know that the oldest known fire cults are associated with the Atharvans, the priests of the god Agni, we know very little about them. We know that they worshipped fire on altars in nature, often on the tops of hills. However, no altar of their cult has ever been found. It is possible that they only erected altars for those occasions and then removed them because their successors, the Brahmins, perform their rituals in the same way. We also know very little about other ancient fire cults. However, what can help us understand is… The essence of these rituals and ceremonies is the symbolic meaning that arises from the attributes of the Fire gods. Fire is primarily seen as a creative force and a means of renewal through purification and sacrifice. As such, it is the life force that creates and renews throughout the seasons. This is why solstices and equinoxes, as the cardinal points of the annual cycles, are associated with ceremonial events and celebrations, as it is when the balance between light and darkness shifts. Therefore, the winter solstice marks the end of the dominance of darkness and the beginning of the growth of light. It is a time of celebration dedicated to the preservation of sacred fires. The cosmic drama of the creation of the world is ceremonially renewed, as shown by the ancient Slavic tradition of burning the Yule log on Christmas Eve.
Since humans are natural beings, the annual cycles also affect them. Therefore, the festivals of fire are not only social celebrations but also opportunities for purification and renewal of the individual. This is connected to another symbolic aspect of fire. Fire is a means of transformation and transmutation, occurring through an alchemical process, resulting in both structural and content changes. The fires of a blacksmith reshape metal, while the fires of an athanor transmute lead into gold. Through the fire of the mind, one can attain knowledge, and through the spiritual fire, one can be enlightened. In original Brahmanism, fire and purity are synonymous, indicating the process and purpose of human existence. The goal of this process can be summarized in the following sentence from the Sumyuttanikaya Upanishad: “My heart is a hearth, the flame is the tamed self.”