Iranians Mark Nature Day as War Enters Day 34

WANA (Apr 02) – As Iran entered the 34th day of a war triggered by joint U.S. and Israeli strikes, families across Tehran and other cities headed to parks and open spaces on Thursday to mark Sizdah Bedar — or Nature Day — one of the country’s oldest and most widely observed Nowruz traditions.

Observed on the 13th day of the Persian New Year, Sizdah Bedar is a national holiday that traditionally brings families outdoors for picnics, games and gatherings in nature, symbolically bringing the Nowruz holiday season to a close. This year, however, the annual ritual unfolded against the backdrop of air raids, missile exchanges and wartime uncertainty.

In Tehran’s parks, families were seen laying out picnic spreads, grilling kebabs, playing cards and watching children run through crowded green spaces. Children played together, women painted Iranian flags on the faces of young boys and girls, and groups exercised near Milad Tower — scenes of routine and resilience in a city still living under the shadow of war.

The public holiday came as Iran remained gripped by a conflict that began on Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States launched coordinated strikes on Tehran and several other Iranian cities. Iran has since responded with repeated waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. military assets in the region, turning the escalation into a prolonged regional confrontation.

Overnight, Iran’s Supreme Leader issued a message marking both the anniversary of the Islamic Republic and Nature Day, urging people to plant saplings from Thursday through the end of spring in memory of those killed in the war. He said the attacks had damaged not only infrastructure and human lives, but also Iran’s natural environment, and described tree planting as a symbol of renewal, hope and national resilience.

Speaking to WANA in Tehran, Mohammadreza Jazayeri, a young resident of the capital, rejected recent threats by U.S. President Donald Trump that Iran could be bombed “back to the Stone Age” if it refused Washington’s terms.

“The enemy wants to scare Iran, wants a set of conditions that they have set, considering these infrastructural disruptions, to persuade Iran to accept them in any case, but we know that if we accept, we will become like Libya, like Iraq, like Syria, and we will not accept such a thing. These are just pressures that they are having. We have an 8,000-year-old civilization ourselves; they definitely have a 250-year-old civilisation. They can never return us to the Stone Age,” he said in an interview with WANA.

Jazayeri said what stood out most to him was the continuation of daily life despite the war.

“As we saw in the news agencies, the media, the people of the other countries, well, they are afraid if there are missiles and go to a shelter, but our people are really different from all the people in the world, they are really standing, their daily lives continue, considering that well, we see that missiles, jets, and all of them are in our airspace and are busy, but in my opinion, our people are very fearless and brave. The flow is happening, but there is definitely a difference from last years,” he told WANA.

Another Tehran resident, Haniyeh, also dismissed Trump’s threats, describing them as psychological pressure rather than a realistic military objective.

“I think it could be a bluff. I don’t think anyone can be so daring to reach the Iranian civilization. I think their work is with someone else,” she said, speaking to WANA.

Asked about the public mood during the war, she acknowledged that fear remained — but said it no longer dictated daily life.

“Of course there is fear, well, it is naturally always there, but we have seen everything. As the people of Iran, I don’t think there is anything we haven’t seen, and we have already lost some of our fear from the previous war. We know that there is nothing,” she said in her interview with WANA.

A third Tehran resident, Shahidi, said the threats contradicted Washington’s stated diplomatic language and rejected the idea that Iran could be broken by force.

“It is completely contradictory to the talks that were supposed to help the Iranian nation, and this nation will never return to the Stone Age. The civilization we have, the antiquity we have, will never return to the Stone Age. They should pay attention to their own history, which is only 200 or 250 years old, not to a people who have been around for thousands of years, and we have the Cyrus Cylinder, which is considered one of the oldest civilisations in the world. These people will never return to the Stone Age,” Shahidi told WANA.

Beyond Tehran, similar scenes were reported elsewhere. In other cities, residents marked the holiday with public gatherings in nature despite wartime conditions — a show of social solidarity and public morale that gave this year’s Sizdah Bedar a significance beyond its traditional place in the Nowruz calendar.

In Iran, Sizdah Bedar is more than a holiday outing. Officially designated as Nature Day in the post-revolutionary calendar, it remains one of the country’s most deeply rooted seasonal rituals.

This year, under the pressure of war, the tradition took on an added meaning: not just the celebration of spring, but a visible insistence that ordinary life, public togetherness and national continuity would endure  even under fire.