Festival of What?
While starting another random day at my job, my co-worker showed me photos of the annual Muslim Festival of Ashura. Me being your average oblivious American, I wasn’t aware that festivals like these still took place in other parts of the world.
For those of us who are not familiar, among Shi’a Muslims, Ashura is a major festival, the tazia (ta’ziyah). It pays tribute to the death of Husayn (also spelled Hussein), son of Imam ‘Ali and grandson of Muhammad, on the 10th of Muharram, AH 61 (October 10, 680), in and around Karbala, Iraq. The events led to the split between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it is of central importance in Shia Islam.
For Shi’a Muslims, observances and rituals on Ashura consist primarily of public expressions of mourning and grief. Several Shi’as men express mourning by flagellating themselves on the back with chains, or by ritually cutting themselves on the head. This act is intended to connect them with Husayn’s suffering and death as an aid to salvation on the Day of Judgment.
Whoa! The pictures that went with the coverage of the festival were graphic and eye opening. Men dressed in white garments stand together while blood trickles down their steady bodies; and innocent toddlers are held by their smiling mothers displaying deep forehead cuts leaving a trail of cherry red blood, truly left me dumfounded.
I was surprised that people would actually torture themselves for the sake of a belief or praxis. It made me think of how I hate shaving my legs for the fear of cutting my ankle or knee and having little blood droplets on the bathroom floor. I hate pain and to view a people that welcomes it as a part of tradition and homage is hard for me to comprehend.
To the contrary, I ponder what it would be like to have such a massive and all-consuming belief system where I would endure pain to prove my devotion to a fundamental truth.
Are we religious enough? In our personal beliefs, do we exude discipline or an adequate passion for our spiritual leaders? Or do we live everyday under the premise that doing good deeds will get us a spot among the clouds in paradise.
Either way, I respect what other people do for their god. And if you don’t, I will pray for you.
The religions themselves are not the problem, but rather the people who so devoutly follow them. our gift of free though allows us to distort belief systems into what conveniently benefits us…after all it’s all about survival of the fittest and looking out for number one right?
Here’s a great link on religion on Wikipedia: click here
It would be great if we could all spend some time learning about other people’s belief systems. We’re willing to spend hours watching our favorite baseball or football team on tv or drinking until we fall over at the bar, and yet we don’t invest the time to learn about the person sitting next to us at the office and about what is really important to them.
Nice post!
Comment by Eric Brown — January 31, 2007 @ 10:11 pm