Mowlid

In the last couple of weeks there have been a lot of Mowlids at the Hussainias in the village. I have enjoyed being with my friends in the village during these days of celebrating! This is a picture of the place where the men gather. The women have separate places.

Remembrance is something that is very important in Shia Islam. They hold commemeration ceremonies by gathering together and reciting stories. A Mowlid is when they celebrate the birth of prophets or imams, even ladies from the family of their prophet Mohammed.

It's not really possible for me to take a picture of the ladies, but here's a cute picture of my friend's daughter! The night that this picture was taken I got to go to three different Hussainias and two families' homes. I was exhausted afterward!!

I love the village we live in and the people who live here! There used to be more foreigners who live here, but they've moved away because of the political tensions. When I went to one friend's house she was so happy that I was there! (Visiting someone's home is a way to honor them.) She leaned over and said, "Don't leave us like the other foreigners have! Stay with us!" Tears came to my eyes...I was really touched!

Here's a picture of me and the kids in one of the back rooms of the Hussainia. This is where the family sits and where they keep all of the cooking pots....that's what you see in the background. For some occasions they do a lot of cooking and have to use these huge pots!

One Mowlid that I went to was in a friend's home! She and her family had prepared all of this wonderful food! We had to wait until after the reading to eat it.

She did a great job making this a festive occasion. In this picture you can see donuts, cupcakes, fruit, nuts, eggs, rosewater, and candies.

Here's a picture of Faith and Joseph with their friend Hussein. They did a pretty good job of waiting until it was time to enjoy the food!














Something I'm getting used to is figuring out when their special days are. They have a different calendar than we do. Right now it's the month of Rajab and just yesterday they were celebrating the birth of Ali. Here's a snapshot of days of remembrance for this month:

Here is a youtube video of a typical commemoration ceremony for men. This one happens to be for Zainab, who is Ali's daughter. She's in Mohammed's blood line; he was her grandfather. If you listen carefully you can hear the men in the audience singing in response to the reading.