new year stuff

I was back in school for two days before we got 'Ashura holiday' lasting two days... Logic tends to escape the Muslim world from time to time.

Ashura is the observance of a massacre that occurred 1300 years ago in the desert of Saudi Arabia. Imam Hussain (the grandson of the prophet Mohamed) and his family were traveling from Medina to Mecca and they were killed on the way. Shia Muslim men spend a good amount of time during Ashura beating themselves and mourning Imam Hussain. Today it's the cutting--the men will take swords and cut themselves in mourning.

Certain parts of this culture I will never understand and the more I live here the more I don't think I'll ever fully get it.

TIB