Fire.
Zoroastrians have spent two and a half thousand years telling people they do not worship it. It is faced, not addressed — the clearest, least corruptible thing available, so you turn toward it to pray, exactly as a Muslim turns toward Mecca. It is fed sandalwood by a masked priest so that his breath does not touch it.
The objection to being called fire-worshippers is two and a half thousand years old and still being made. Fire is Atar, described as the son of Ahura Mazda, and it is the ritual focus rather than the object of worship: one prays facing it, exactly as a Muslim prays facing Mecca, because it is the purest and least corruptible thing available, and prayers are also said facing the sun or any source of light. Temple fires are graded — Atash Dadgah, Atash Adaran and the highest Atash Bahram — with the consecration effort rising steeply. The priest tending a fire wears a padan, a white cloth mask over nose and mouth, so that his breath and saliva do not reach it, and he feeds it sandalwood with tongs. Non-Zoroastrians are not admitted to fire temples in India, a restriction that surprises visitors and which the community maintains firmly. The Achaemenids appear to have used open-air fire altars rather than temples; enclosed fire temples are a later development.
The same ground, other faiths
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