Actors and celebrities at the Muharram mourning ceremony

Since this significant time in history, Ashura has manifested in ritual mourning, remembrance, and atonement as a form of holding witness to the moral principles of Islam through Imam Hussein’s refusal to assimilate to tyranny. Physical rituals take the form of prayers, Quranic recitations, sermons, and elaborate processions and reenactments of the Battle of Karbala. As is common within Islam, distributing free food to honor the sacrifice of others is a mainstay ritual of Ashura.