Ashoura

Every year on the 10th of Muharram (first month in Islamic calendar), Shi'is mourn the death of Hussain, grandson of the prophet. While Karbala and the most important holy sites are in Iraq, Syria has Sayida Zeinab, his sister, and Sayida Ruqayia, ensuring a steady stream of Iranian pilgrims. Ashoura this year was on a Saturday (January 20), when I'm in Sitt Zeinab anyways, teaching English, so I walked down the road and watched a procession of what other viewers told me were Pakistanis, beating themselves in time, rising and falling intensity.
I followed them into the Sitt Zeinab mosque, quickly transforming my scarf into a hijab.

I missed the "hard core" stuff - the cutting themselves with swords - because it was at 6am, but my friend Miqdad (British) caught it, though he has very strong opinions about inflicting pain to one's self being un-Islamic and unsupported by text. But he also told me to look out for Arba'een, forty days after Ashoura, when Sitt Zeineb is supposed to see even more pilgrims.