Monday, May 26, 2008

"An article about Iran in the English speaking press"

Like many countries , Iran has several Festivals which happen in a special day . One of the most famous of Iranian celebration is called "Annual Festival Of Fire" or "Chahar Shanbe suri" in Persian language . Most Iranian are interested in attending this Festival because they go to neighbours' and request a gift of them . They sometimes ask to have an advice from old people.

The annual *ritual happens every year on the last Tuesday before the Persian New Year or Nowruz , on 21 March .
The history of Festival Of Fire relates to pre - Islamic times in Iran . This holy history relates to the 7th century when the main religion was *"Zarathustra" . The Zoroastrians believed that there were seven holy things in the whole world which included four elements and one of holy elements was fire . In addition , fire was holy because on that time , Zoroastrian supporters believed in God and evil . So , they had to fight with evil and fire was the holy factor in the fight .

So , nowadays to celebrate this especial day , Iranian people make a big *bonfire and jump over it that to *purify themselves and *banish evil spirits ahead of the year to come .

Youth and children are the main fans of this Festival . They wait to attend it and some of them make dangerous home - made explosives to let off in streets . At that night , every where is noisy and sometimes it makes visitors frighteningly .
To explain some injuries which might happen at that night , there have been several injured reports of teenagers who have lost some parts of their body because of making dangerous bombs and many parents face to terrific situation after celebration every year.
To conclude , Iranian celebrate Festival Of Fire is one of the happiest day every year when people gather together . They find much fun , so they really enjoy it .

*Ritual : A ceremony or set of action that done in the same way.
*Zarathustra : A Persian religious teacher who started a new religion called
Zoroastrianism .
*Bonfire : A large outdoor fire either for burning waste or for a celebration .
*Purify : To remove the dirty or unwanted parts from something .
*Banish : To punish something by making it leave place and stay out for a long time .

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The effects of globalisation on my home town

what has globalisation affected in our life?
To define, globalisation means affecting to the whole world , so imagine a new discovery which can change the world immediately , such as using mobile phones and Internet. Globalisation includes a wide area of effects on different fields of life style . In Tehran , it seems that the most of these effects have been occurred on people's nutrition and life style.

First of all, Iranian's nutrition is being effected of globalisation more than before .Most of people believe that watching more foreign TV channels causes most changes on people's nutrition because nowadays, there are a huge number of attractive fast food advertising on TV programs which are affecting to people . So, many of them prefer eating fast food to using healthy food while they might know about disadvantages of using them. There are fast food restaurants more than before in the city and people like spending their free time eating fast food. In contrast, there were traditional restaurants which served natural food before . Most people used to eat organic and natural.

Secondly, according to some surveys , Iranian people prefer following modern life which people in developed countries enjoy. For example, they would rather use modern goods such as the latest design of cars , new design of electrical goods , renown brands and well-known shops . Most of these goods import from American and European countries and despite the expensive cost, people still buy them . For example, most people are using Microwave to reduce the cooking time while it is expensive to buy and users also have to pay much money on their power bills .

To conclude, in Tehran there are many effects of globalisation which have been affecting in people's life style and nutrition . Most of these effects come from foreign counties and despite their bad effect on life , people still use them .