Ashura, the tenth of Muharram, is the year's emotional center: majlis gatherings where the story is recounted until the room weeps, processions, passion plays (ta'ziyeh), and in some communities self-flagellation with chains or blades — a practice many senior clerics have condemned and redirected toward blood donation drives. Millions walk to Karbala for Arbaeen forty days later, in what is by participation one of the largest annual gatherings on earth.