Ashura, the ten day mourning ceremony -I

You know how Shiaaism was established? It was us- Iranians- who made it up to keep our identity. Let me explain more:
During the dynasty of Sasanids, Arabs invaded Iran and occupied the country. Iranian poor fed up with the terrible class discrimination imposed by Sasanid kings, helped the invaders to conquer the country. The Iranian poor were astonished and amazed by the promises of Peace and Brotherhood the Moslems spoke about. Later, the people who faced the wrongness of the promises of the 'liberator's rose up and fought the invaders. We have stories of the clashes between the people and the conquerors in our history. Very bloody indeed.
There are stories that before death, prophet Mohammad made his will that the first Khalifa after him, when he dies would be Ali ,his son-in-law and cousin, the first man who accepted Islam. When the Prophet died, the Arab elderly people gathered and decided that Ali was too young to be the leader of Moslems. They decided that not Ali but that would be Abubakr who would be the substitute of the Prophet. This way, all the long long problems between the majority and those who were supporting Ali, began- what we call them today as Sunnis and Shiaas.
Iranians who were themselves against Arab power, invited Ali to their own country. Yes, we had our own problems with Arabs, so naturally we sought allies. This is the reason that Ali moved to Kufa, Iraq ,the then western city of Iran. Kufa was just a few hundred kilometeres away from Tisfun, the then Iranian capital city.
So, Shiaa (means the 'followers') of Imam Ali, found a mostly Iranian taste. For instance, to express us to be different, when we prepare for prayers, we (I don't mean myself, I don't pray. I mean Iranian Moslems) wash our hands and feet in a different way that Sunnis do. When standing for prayer, we don't put our hands on each other like what Sunnis do, etc. To tell you briefly, Shiaa is actually an Iranian version of Islam. Later when the third son of Ali was killed by Yazid (the then Khalifa from Omavid family), Iranians held Iranian kind of ceremonies to mourn his death. That's why what we have now as Ashura, is very Iranian. It is exactly like the mourning ceremonies we held for ourselves in ancient Iran. We had a tradition of mourning in Iran called 'Sowashoon'. Ashura is very smiliar to it. It is an imitation of it actually.
Ashura is the tenth day of Muharram, the lunar month. It is the commemoration of the 'martyrdom' of Hossein and his friends killed in Karbala. Traditionally, Muharram is a mourning month for Shiaas. No celebration, no wedding is held during this month. The climax is always Ashura and the day before it 'Tasooa' (Ashura is an Arabic word meaning 'the tenth' and Tasooa means 'the nineth').
If you come to visit Iran during the first days of Muharram, you would see black flags all around. There are mourning groups, beating the drums and cymbals marching in the streets, beating on their chests and crying to commemorate the innocence of Hossein.
At the front of the mourning group, you usually see a metal feature carried by volunteers, it is called 'Alam'. I took this picture you see here a couple of days ago and it is an Alam resting to be carried during Tasooa and Ashura. Look at the structure, doesn't it remind you the cross? Just imagine it carried by someone on his shoulders, doesn't it remind you the Christ and the cross on his shoulder? Can you trace the similarity of it and the Christian stuff?

Ta'ziye
For Ashura we even have a traditional kind of street theater, called Ta'ziye. The theater is a narration of the event played by traditional actors. It usually begins the story since the time Imam Hossein began to gather his friends and prepare for the war. The theater shows the agonies he and his followers went through. The peak of the theater is when at the midday of Ashura, Imam and his bunch of followers (they were totally 72), fought Yazid and all were killed. Then it goes on to the time that the survived members of family are taken as prisoners and to the jail.
Well, the people around cry so loudly when the watch the theater and it goes sometimes that some even attack the poor guy who performs the role of Shemr- murderer of Imam Hossein.