18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Faces of Mourning

These mourning faces are the replica of age-old grief in the name of Hassan and Hussain, the grandsons of Muhammad, the Prophet in Islam. While men shed blood of sorrow, women shed tears and mourn in the holy month of Muharram. This religious custom of grief is one of the major practices in Islam which takes place in the first holy month of the Islamic calendar, Muharram. In the commemoration of the death of Husayn ibn Ali and his family in the battle of Karbala every year the people of the Islam community and specifically the Shia community mourn along with fasting while Sunnis practice fasting on the tenth day of Ashura. This was clicked during such a demonstration of grief and pain on the occasion of Muharram.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 09.2019
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Kolkata, India
Camera: NIKON D7200
Copyright: © SURAJIT DUTTA