Picture From TasteOfBeirut
Ashoura Day is commemorated by Shi’a Muslims as a mourning day for the martyrdom of Hussein, the son of Ali and grandson of Prophet Mohammad during the Battle of Karbala some 1300 years ago. Re-enacting the battle has been long a tradition among the Shiite communities and involves in few areas self-flagellation in order to remember the blood that Hussein shed for them.
To be honest, I am not a big fan of the Tatbir, or self-flagellation act and I’d rather see people organize blood donation campaigns on that day (Like Hezbollah does) but some areas in Lebanon such as Nabatieh like to maintain this tradition, which seems to attract foreigners every year.
As far as Ashoura food traditions are concerned, there’s the Hreessé dish and the Abbas cookies and I absolutely love both! I don’t know why I had never heard about Abbas cookies until this year but they’re definitely worth a try. If you are interested in the recipe, Taste Of Beirut wrote about it [Here].
Check out more pictures from Nabatieh [Here]
That’s not real blood right ?
You bet your touche it is!!
Shia Muslims observe the first ten days as public mourning, the Sunni Muslims evade any overt display of happiness such as weddings etc. and focus on the fasting of the 10th day of Muharram in memory of Prophet Moses exodus from Egypt. By and large most of the Sunni Muslim community avoid any explicit connection of that day to the martyrdom of Imam Hussain . In fact in many parts of the world the month has become a point of conflict between Shia and Sunni. Thus, Imam Hussain and his legacy is seen as a sectarian event – See more at: http://www.islamicity.com/Articles
The blood donation campaigns are still not that common on ashura; however it would be nice to shed the light on the “who is hussain” campaign that took place in hamra on ashura. the blood donations where given for the children cancer center! But only 92 persons participated :/