Hubble-bubble in Iranian Folklore

Hubble-bubble has been the most common device for smoking tobacco in Iran and its neighboring. It has a folkloric name in every region. Hubble-bubble consists of a glass pitcher or pottery at the bottom, a wooden body in the middle, a wooden or plastic tube attached to the body for puffing, and a censer at the top to put tobacco and charcoal. Puffing causes the charcoal to catch fire and the tobacco to get half-burnt. The smoke goes into the body and then into the pitcher. Finally, it goes into the smoker’s mouth through the tube. In Iran, there are various tobaccos in taste and smell just like various hubble-bubbles in shape and size. Teahouses are the most common places to use hubble-bubble but many people are used to have it at home as well. Here, we study the cultural, social, political and financial aspects of hubble-bubble and consider its role in the people’s lives. This study has been done based on the latest anthropological and ethnographic studies of Iran. Besides published books, unpublished anthropological and ethnographical reports of the anthropologists in the Anthropological Research Center of Iran have been used to provide this study. Some of the subjects are the emergence date of hubble-bubble in Iran, hubble-bubble prohibition, hubble-bubble on trips, hubble-bubble components, hubble-bubble ornaments, hubble-bubble variations, tobacco, smoking time, smoking place, preparing hubble-bubble, fragrant tobaccos, offering hubble-bubble, rituals of using hubble-bubble, social circumstances of hubble-bubble, hubble-bubble-related jobs, hubble-bubble in traditional medicines, hubble-bubble in calendars, poems, riddles, and telling fortunes, hubble-bubble in common beliefs, and the other dimensions of everyday life.