Muharram Significance, rituals and history of this day of mourning and observance.

Unlike other festivals, Ashura is not a festival of joy but is a day of observance. Muslims observe the day by wearing black-coloured clothes and visit mosques and shrines.

On the tenth day of Muharram on Friday, more than a lakh Shia Muslims dressed in black will walk barefoot in a procession.

On Friday, those participating in the procession will not eat till the procession begins. There will be free food and sharbats served by various organizations from different religions and castes. "Every year, people from different sects and castes of the society come on the street and starts serving water and sharbat.

Shia Muslims mourn the death of Hussain Ibn Ali, grandson of Prophet Muhammad and son of Ali from the battle of Karbala.He was killed in Karbala, a popular place of pilgrimage in Iraq. In the year 680, the battle of Karbala was responsible for the devastation of Imam Hussain, his family, and his followers. Till the end, he suffered for the good cause but finally he had to give up in front of the cruelty.

Followers do fast on Ashura and on the day before that — the ninth day, called Tasu’a.

Imam Hussain embodied in himself magnificent qualities - wisdom, knowledge, leadership, patience, humility, forbearance and total submission to the Almighty, to name a few - and his life is a source of inspiration and a role model for all generations to condemn all forms of oppression & Injustice.