First Esfand Wednesday (Yalanchi chershenbe) · Yalanchi Chershenbe

Culture of origin: Azerbaijani · Ancient festival

Holiday sources: Azerbaijani

In Iranian Azerbaijan each of the four Wednesdays before Nowruz is kept, the last being Chaharshanbe Suri (akhir chershenbe, "the last Wednesday"). According to Hassan Sepehrfar of West Azerbaijan's Cultural Heritage office, the four weeks of Esfand belong in turn to water, wind, earth and fire; the first, the week of water, is when the weather turns warm enough that water no longer freezes in the ground, and its Wednesday is called the "lying" (yalanchi) or chille-qovan Wednesday, the one that drives the cold away. In East Azerbaijan, where it is simply the "first Wednesday", people lit fires on their rooftops on each of the four. On the Wednesday mornings people go to springs and rivers before dawn and jump over the water three or seven times, and some break old clay pots.