The event of Arbaeen

[peace_at_last]

Arbaeen, meaning forty, marks the fortieth day of the martyrdom of the third Shia Imam, al-Husayn. Every year Shia Muslims march towards his shrine on foot to commemorate this event. This year about 20 million people attended this ceremony and march. There is a report on Huffington post that explains the event and its significance:
huffingtonpost.co.uk/sayed-mahdi-almodarresi/arbaeen-pilgrimage_b_6203756.html

And by the way, non-Muslims such as Christians in Iraq participate in this event too. See here for photos of Christians in Imam Husayn’s shrine:
en.shafaqna.com/topnews/item/38065-christian-priests-in-the-holy-shrine-of-imam-hussein-as-for-arbaeen-pilgrim-shafaqna-photos.html

 

[on_the_hill]

And by the way, non-Muslims such as Christians in Iraq participate in this event too. See here for photos of Christians in Imam Husayn’s shrine:

I haven’t read the article–but maybe the non-Muslims do it to integrate themselves into the majority community, so as not to be singled out? Do they do it as insurance against discrimination or persecution?

 

[SyroMalankara]

Arbaeen, meaning forty, marks the fortieth day of the martyrdom of the third Shia Imam, al-Husayn. Every year Shia Muslims march towards his shrine on foot to commemorate this event. This year about 20 million people attended this ceremony and march. There is a report on Huffington post that explains the event and its significance:
huffingtonpost.co.uk/sayed-mahdi-almodarresi/arbaeen-pilgrimage_b_6203756.html

And by the way, non-Muslims such as Christians in Iraq participate in this event too. See here for photos of Christians in Imam Husayn’s shrine:
en.shafaqna.com/topnews/item/38065-christian-priests-in-the-holy-shrine-of-imam-hussein-as-for-arbaeen-pilgrim-shafaqna-photos.html

This actually looks like some people in costume. I’m not aware of any Eastern Christian denomination with those particular style of dress. Something is a bit off. Can anyone identify the faces of those folks?

 

[jakasaki]

This actually looks like some people in costume. I’m not aware of any Eastern Christian denomination with those particular style of dress. Something is a bit off. Can anyone identify the faces of those folks?

From Wiki:

While the Arba’een is a distinctively Shi’a spiritual exercise, Sunni Muslims and even Christians, Yazidis, Zoroastrians, and Sabians partake in both the pilgrimage as well as serving of devotees. Pilgrims from European countries including Sweden, Russia and even a delegation from Vatican City have joined in past observances. Some Iraqi Christian religious leaders also joined the delegation from the Vatican.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arba%27een

 

[SyroMalankara]

From Wiki:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arba%27een

Sure, I have seen pictures of the “Vatican delegation”. It was the Chaldean Patriarch and some bishops standing with some Imams in their secular dress. None were in Liturgical vestements. And the one’s pictured there look like nothing of either the Syriac, Armenian, Chaldean-Assyrian, Maronite, Antiochian Orthodox, Melkite or Latin Churches. None were accompanied by monks in black wearing oversized wood crosses. So who were they?

 

[peace_at_last]

I haven’t read the article–but maybe the non-Muslims do it to integrate themselves into the majority community, so as not to be singled out? Do they do it as insurance against discrimination or persecution?

No, it has nothing to do with what you have stated. ‘Most’ non-Shias that participate in the events related to Imam Husayn have seen miracles. I’ll leave it at that because this is not a subject that I can prove.

 

[SyroMalankara]

I’ll ask again, who were those people that dressed in some ethno-religious garb and walked thru in those pictures?