The chayyeneh ritual of women

In the days of Moharram among the people of the Ilâm region, women organize a special ceremony called “chayyeneh”. Among these chayyeneh, we can mention that of Ghâsem (A) on the seventh day of Moharram, that of Abbâs (may Peace be upon Him) on the eighth day, that of Imam Hossein on the tenth day and that of Arba'een day. For example in the châyyeneh Ghâsem, they make a young unmarried girl wear a wedding dress (green dress and white scarf) (symbolizing Ghâsem's bride), they also give her two lighted candles and place a tray with noghl and nabât, henna, incense and candles in the center of the square. The participants in the ritual with colorful ceremonial clothes and with a neat appearance, enter the square and the woman who can be called mullah in the feminine, begins a funeral eulogy. Then a woman, during the marriage rite, wears a blood-soaked shroud in the center of the square (to witness the arrival of the news of Ghâsem's martyrdom on the day of the marriage ceremony); after these events, the participants in the ritual abandon the festive attitude and, bewildered, by extinguishing the candles they put a black châdor on the bride's head (to testify to her mourning) and after the candles have been extinguished, the mullah's recitation of laments begins female. At the beginning of the ritual, the participants sitting on their knees and then standing turn in a circle and with the palms of their hands they clap their foreheads and complain.

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