10-Day of Ashura in Iran

This day is well-known because of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad and the third Shia Imam, along with members of his family and close friends at the Battle of Karbala in the year 61 AH (680 AD). Yazid I was in power then and wanted the Bay'ah (allegiance) of Husayn ibn Ali. Muslims believe Yazid was openly going against the teachings of Islam in public and changing the sunnah of Muhammad.

Husayn in his path toward Kufa encountered the army of Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad, the governor of Kufa. On October 10, 680 (Muharram 10, 61 AH), he and his small group of companions and family members (in total who were around 72 men and few ladies and children) fought with a large army of perhaps more than 100,000 men under the command of Umar ibn Sa'ad, son of the founder of Kufa. Husayn and all of his men were killed while being thirsty. The nearby river (Euphrates) was also blocked by Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad men and Husayn and his companions were not allowed to get any water from it. Before being killed, Husayn said "if the religion of Mohammad was not going to live on except with me dead, let the swords tear me to pieces." Some of the bodies of the dead, including that of Husayn, were then mutilated.

We came across the 1st day of the festival in Esfagan and observed a parade on the street in the evening. We then run into the 4th day ceremony in Fahraj. Instead of the old bloody sacrifices, Fahraj used two hand chains to slap on their backs as simplistic bleeding.

The local women kindly loaned us the outfits (chadors) to sit in the ceremony and observe the ritual. The local girls were very excited about our presence and asked a lot of questions in Farsi. Although we did not understand all of the questions, we tried our best to feedback with answers like our countries of origin, names, ages, days of travel in Iran, etc. We were too tired to stay for 11 pm dinner after the ceremony.

In Shiraz, we run into an evening ceremony on the street in the city center.  The locals killed a goat on the street as sacrifice. They distributed cookies and hot coco to the participants and observers (including us) afterwards. 

All stores were closed during 11/13-15. Fortunately, I was staying with my host family so I had food to eat and people to talk to. There were no blood shading in Shiraz or Tehran, but some other northern cities. I photoed the TV screen shoots. My host families were not religious so we did not go to local ceremony.