Sunday, October 26, 2014

Moharram. It`s time for mourning!


The month of moharram has come. A month of mourning for the third Shia Imam Hossein and his family cruelly killed in Karbala on the day of Ashura. I won`t go into details about his life and this particular event. I`d rather tell you how Tehran (and I`d say the whole Iran) changes when the holy month of moharram comes.

Streets of Tehran which are always full of people wearing black clothes, but during moharram (and especially first 10 days that precede the day of Ashura) their amount doubles. Most of them are religious young men, small businesses` owners, shopkeepers who`d like to share their grief and feel themselves a part of the community.

All over the city black-and-green flags with the words of mourning are run up. Passing by some small shops you can hear so-called “nouheh” (rhythmic mourning speeches which are sometimes poems and really sound like songs) about Imam Hossein and the tragedy. Some even use it as a ringtone!
Iranians produce a great amount of moharram-related products like black-and-green flags, banners with the messages of grief addressed to Imam Hossein, huge speakers (which are used to broadcast nouheh), black T-shirts with some writings about Imam Hossein or just simple black clothing and lots of other stuff.


Read more on moharram in Tehran next time!

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