Burning Lights: Candle Symbolism, Iranian Ritual, and the Seven Candle Nazr

Candle-burning rituals are a near-universal component of religious practice, bridging themes of memory, hope, vulnerability, and communal identity. In Iran, the symbolism of fire endures in localized rituals, most strikingly in the Seven Candle Nazr practiced in Mazandaran. This paper offers an extended, cross-disciplinary analysis of candle and fire symbolism across world religions, situating Iranian practice within both global and specifically Islamic frames. Employing critical frameworks from cultural memory, ritual studies, and semiotics, and drawing on recent ethnographic material as well as canonical theory, the study uncovers the palimpsest of Zoroastrian, Abrahamic, Islamic, and local Mazandarani significances converging in this living ritual. The Seven Candle Nazr, with its unique gendered agency and symbolic complexity, is analyzed as both a product of cultural continuity and creative hybridity, exemplifying the ways ordinary acts can sustain extraordinary reservoirs of meaning.

کلیدواژه ها:

Candle ritual ، Mazandaran ، Cultural memory ، Ritual hybridity ، Religious syncretism