One of the traditions associated with Sofreh Aghd, or the Irani-Persian wedding ceremony, involves a charcoal grill called a manghal carried in front of the bride and placed on the sofreh aghd spread. The manghal (shown above, gold and fancy) is sort of like a fire pot or pit. At some point during the wedding ceremony, a family member will throw esfand (herb seeds native to Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and India) on the fire pit, which causes the seeds to explode and give off a fragrant smoke. This smoking and popping is said to ward away evil spirits. According to my cousin Anita, [one is] "supposed to do it when good things happen so that no one will evil eye you... sort of like Native American Indians burning sage to cleanse."
According to wikipedia (link), the burning of esfand is practiced by both Muslims and Zoroastrians. Many of the traditions associated with sofreh aghd are Zoroastrian in origin. Burning esfand seeds is done not only at a wedding, but also in many other circumstances to ward off evil spells.
ETA 5/27/09 via Hassan Haghani:
Many cultures have similar practices. In our culture, burning espand (or esfand) is like paying an insurance premium to maintain course in the direction of happiness and contentment. You keep "cheshme-bad" or "nazar" (too much attention) away. The "evil eye" is a rough Western equivalent, but not exactly the same. The most important distinction between "cheshme bad" and the western "evil eye" is that "cheshme bad" does not necessarily come from ill intention or ill wishes. It is not necessarily the desire of another person to do you harm. Rather, an observer, in their experience of joy for another's extraordinary happiness or fortune (perhaps subconsciously tinged with a little envy) , could unintentionally overload the atmosphere and thereby strengthen the everwaiting presence of darkness to derail that other person's (or any person's) fortune. Espand's popping and smoking burns away those droplets of envy that may have slipped in the air, no matter how unintentionally.
Now, I'm going to let my imagination fly! This may go back to our pre-Islamic roots. Could it go back even to our pre-Zoroastrian days? We know that our Hindu and Buddhist "cousins" have developed similar, although not identical, practices for centuries alongside us. Did we start this during to the earlier belief systems of our ancestors, when they seemed to believe in a much more pronounced balance/duality of darkness and light, the two representing equally powerful deities or forces? Light and darkness could coexist and neither was better or worse than the other. In fact, according to that structure, neither could exist without the other, but each was constantly trying to triumph over the other (Could you see the parallels between this and the Chinese yin-and-yang?). Human beings were mere creatures swept away by whichever force was trumphing over the other at any given time. It was therefore the human's duty to give strength to the force that would make better conditions for his own existence. Darkness - in the old belief system - was not necessarily evil or bad, as it existed within us. However, happiness, which was always present, could only be recognized during the moments that light would help us see it. Our inability to see in the dark didn't mean that there was no happiness there. Knowing our own weakness and blindness in the dark, we preferred light. It gave us the freedom to recognize contentment. Certain practices were understood to to give an upper hand to light/sun/brighness over night/darkness/absence of light. We know that when we burn espand, we are also pushing away our own natural inclanation to create darkness. We are constantly afraid that we are unitentially disrupting someone else's happiness out of our own human weakness, out of unintended envy, as well.
Anita also pointed me in the direction of this website [link], which may be of questionable veracity.
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