The loudspeaker at the south Tehran shrine to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini yesterday counted the seconds to 9.33 a.m., the exact time, 20 years earlier, when the unsmiling leader of Iran's Islamic revolution touched down at Mehrabad Airport after 15 years in exile, 16 days after the Shah fled his country.
This great turning point of 20th-century history is commemorated in Iranian schools every year. But yesterday cars hooted and people waved red, white and green Iranian flags, along with portraits of the white-bearded, black-turbanned leader.
The ayatollah's house in the central Iranian town of Khomein was covered with flowers. At his cavernous, Disneyland-style golddomed mausoleum, the crowd chanted "Allahu akbar" and soldiers fired into the air. The soldiers wore sashes saying, "February 1st, the Day of God".
Yesterday's ceremonies were the first of Ten Days of Dawn commemorating 20 years of the Iranian revolution. On February 11th, 1979, the Shah's last prime minister, Shapour Baktiar, stepped down.
Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3rd, 1989, but if he saw the changes in his country today, he probably wouldn't like them.
"Everywhere in the world where there is a war against oppression, we shall be present," he said, during celebrations to mark the revolution's second anniversary in February 1981. "We are men of war and we shall export our revolution to the entire world. Until the cry of `Allahu akbar' reigns over the world, the struggle shall continue."
The thousands at the Khomeini shrine yesterday were diehard followers of the Ayatollah, including revolutionary guards and members of the Basij militia volunteers who fought in the 1980-1988 war against Iraq. But even the obligatory, tired chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" could not hide the fact that Iran has abandoned its goal of world revolution.
Instead, the Islamic Republic wants closer ties with Europe. Mr Kamal Kharrazi, the Foreign Minister, will arrive in Paris today to prepare for President Mohamed Khatami's state visit to France in April. Mr Khatami is also expected to visit Italy and Germany.
While other Middle East countries face succession crises, Iran broke the cycle of hereditary rulers after 2,500 years of monarchy. Whatever the constraints of the system - and they are many - Iran's institutions are the result of democratic elections, and this is perhaps the greatest achievement of the revolution.
Yet the revolution has so far failed to reconcile individual freedom with Islam. Half of the country's 64.1 million people were born after 1979, and the young showed their rejection of strict religious rules by voting massively in May 1997 for the moderate President Khatami. (Fifteen is the legal voting age in Iran.) "Young people need legitimate pleasures, and we cannot expect them to frequent only the mosque," President Khatami said recently.
Although educated entirely under the post-revolutionary Islamic system, Tehran's young people crowd into American-style fast-food restaurants, and a cult has grown up around Titanic, with clandestine videotapes of the US film, T-shirts and photos of Leonardo DiCaprio in great demand.
While the regime may not officially approve of Hollywood movies, festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the revolution include pop music concerts, unthinkable in the 1980s.
The backlash has been severe, and the struggle between President Khatami's followers and religious conservatives permeates every aspect of Iranian life. In his speech at the Khomeini shrine yesterday, the former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said the "endless bickering" between "the rigid-minded" and "supporters of unrestrained freedom" must stop.