Day of Ashura

Today is the 1st Ashura festival in Bahrain and the rest of Islamic country. As quoted by Wiki, the Shia muslims are commemorating the Ashura day as a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husyan ibn Ali (peace be upon him), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad SAW (Peace Be Upon Him) at the Battle oof Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH (October 10, 680 AD meanwhile for Sunni Muslims believe that Moses fasted on that day to express gratitude to God for liberation of Israelites from Egypt.

In some countries and regions such as Iran, Iraq, pakistan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamica, the commemoration of Ashura has become a national holiday and most ethnic and religious communities participate in it.

The word Ashura means simply tenth in Arabic; hence the name of the remembrance, literally translated, means "the tenth day". For further reading about Ashura, please go here, so you could get a better understanding about this religous event.

The further interesting about this event, it also existing in my home country Indonesia, exactly celebrated in Pariaman, the West Coast of West Sumatra Province. Though it is originally a Shia festival but in Pariaman is held by the Sunnis, please go to this article about Tabuik (local manifestation of Muharram by Wiki to further reading about the history of Tabuik celebration on Ashura.

In Bahrain, the Ashura procession is held in many areas such as in Manama (the capital city), Sanabis, Jidhafs, Budaiya, Ali and Buri and other areas as well. Unfortunately, I am always at work during this festival and luckily a friend give some photos taken last year for Sanabis DP. After a lot of consideration, I decide not to post them here today due to the nature of the content but I will give you a link here. Sara from Mashhad DP Iran is also posting about Ashura and will give you a complete explanation about how Ashura celebrated in Iran. Please go here to see her DP as she also has tons of beautiful photos.

So, further to keep Sanabis DP with photo, I am posting the photo shown at Wikipedia;