Muharram:

          Muharram is a Muslim festival of mourning observed in the first month of the Hijri Year. The Shia community in particular celebrates it with great fervor and enthusiasm. Muslims, in general, observe fast, offer prayers, recite faiths, and sing elegies in homage to the martyrs during the celebrations. On the final day Tajias are taken out in grand processions, accompanied by brass bands and bagpipes playing sad tunes and the beating of the big drums that add to the solemnity of the occasion. The Tajias represent the Mausoleum of Hazarat Imam Hussain. The procession terminates at Karbala, where the Tajias are ceremonially buried. The alam or standard of Imam Hussian is also carried in the procession.

            On the way Tajias are offered incense, as the procession makes periodic halts and different groups perform acrobatics and re-enacts battle scenes of Karbala. The mourners also beat their breast in mourning to the tune of beating drums and the cries of ‘Hai Hussain!’

            The sad celebration is observed with great passion at place like Lucknow, Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, and big mourning processions are taken out. Hazarat Imam Hussain was the second son of fatimah, the prophet’s daughter. He was brutally murdered along with his whole family by the evil-souled Yazid at Karbala in Mecca. Imam Hussain died fighting bravely.

            After the burial or immersion of the Tajias at Karbala, the devotees return home, break their fast and give food, clothes, money, etc, to the poor, needy and sick in charity. In foreign countries Tajia’s are not taken out in procession. They observe this day of martyrdom in peace and silence. It is believed that Taimurlang introduced the Tajias in India.