An Epidemiologic Study of Wednesday Eve Festival “Charshanbe‑Soori” in Iran ‑ 2017

Background and Purpose: Wednesday Eve Festival “Charshanbe-Soori” is one of the famous Iranian festivals that is held on the last Wednesday of each Solar Hijri year. The ceremony is accompanied by lighting fires and fireworks. The purpose of this study was the epidemiologic investigation of incidents of Wednesday Eve Festival in 2017. Materials and Methods: This ecological study was conducted to evaluate the epidemiological features of the Wednesday Eve Festival in 2017. The research population included all patients referred to all hospitals in Iran on the last Wednesday night of the year. Two-part questionnaire containing demographic information and burns-related factors were used for data collection. To analyze the data, the incidents in different provinces were calculated based on factors such as age, sex, occupation, and education. Results: A total of 3285 incidents related to the Persian Wednesday Eve Festival were reported from March 2 to March 15, 2017,. The injury rate in 2017 was 4.2/100000. The highest incidence rate was found in Qazvin (15.92) and Kurdistan (13.7) cities, and the lowest incidence rate was reported in Kerman (0.13) Sistan and Balochestan and Yazd (0.23)/100,000. Conclusion: Fireworks in Wednesday Eve Festival have become serious trouble, not only because nowadays principles and its traditional aspects are ignored but also it inflicts considerable harm and damage on families and our country by using destructive incendiary equipment. To prevent upcoming incidents, educating the community, especially the youth and teenagers, are necessary.