Daheh-Fajr (the ten day dawn) is a ten day period that begins on 12 Bahman (February 1st) and ends on 22 Bahman (February 11th) and is heavily state-celebrated in Iran as the anniversary of the revolution. The annual movie festival, along with a slew of other festivals, are held during these days. The television airs nothing but happy pop tunes (usually forbidden) and revolutionary songs and photos and videos of the revolution. It all ends with a massive demonstration on 22 Bahman.

In schools, students of all ages prepare for an annual celebration in which they sing songs and dance and act out plays. The school classrooms are decorated. Kids try to get in different preparation committees because that always means you can miss half your classes in order to meet with your groups. All sorts of committees are formed: talent competitions, singing, plays, food, etc. Sign up sheets are taking to classes and they fill up FAST because everyone is dying to spend a week out of class.

Yes, those were the days … we’d spend our time on the “organization committees” doing our homework and exchanging stickers or gossiping about teachers … Good times.

Here are a few stories from this year.

My story:

My cousin is a 16 year old high school student in Ahwaz, the province of Khuzestan, in the south of Iran.

For the past month, he and his schoolmates gather for school assemblies early in the morning and their dedicated, pro-Ahmadinejad principle tells them stories of growing up young during the revolution, and, at the end, the principal shouts in the mic “Down with the U.S.A.” and asks them to repeat. The students shout out: “Down with Russia” and “Down with China”. Then they all hold up their hands inV signs and walk to their class.

For the first time in the span of this man’s career as principle, he has stopped the assemblies before 22 Bahman.

Story 1 from the Divarnevis blog:

(a student in Iran): first, the vice-principal came to our class and told us to collect money from students, so we could buy decorations to decorate our class for Fajr. We refused. So she gave us a warning. We obliged and went around collecting money. We’ve now decorated our entire class green. And here is a picture:

Story 2 from the Divarnevis blog:

(another student in Iran): to all you members of the green movement, let’s decorate our classes green this year, to show that the green movement is so powerful that it can turn the entire country green. This is a start to our powerful presence on 22 Bahman.

On this blog, they’ve also posted step-by-step instructions to teach students how to make decorations for their class: