Religious and Spiritual Tourism Festivals in Yazd, Iran

Yazd, Host of Spiritual and Religious Festivals

Yazd city is located in the middle of the Iranian plateau midway between Isfahan and Kerman, 689 km (427 miles) southeast of Tehran, and close to the Spice and Silk Roads. This historic city is a living testimony of survival in the desert managing limited resources. The wonderful Qanat System as an underground water supplier, besides the magnificent collection of public-religious architecture including traditional bazaar, hammam, mosques, synagogues, Zoroastrian temples, and traditional houses with wind-catchers, courtyards, and thick earthen walls create unique districts in break and mortar. The magic Dolatabad Garden with its tallest wind catcher of 33 m is one of the Persian gardens which contributes pleasantly to city the ecosystem mitigation. All these outstanding characteristics made Yazd City inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 2017.

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Nakhl Gardani, The Mourning Ceremony in Muharram Lunar Month

Yazd is recognized as a destination of religious festivals and pilgrimages; In Muharram and Safar lunar months, thousands of locals eagerly commemorate the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS) and his loyal companions, slain in 680 CE at Karbala in Iraq. Karbala was an actual and at the same time, the metaphorical venue where the Truth confronted the Lie, justice spoke vibrant and audible in the face of prejudice, and?courage, passion, and devotion preceded attachment, worldliness, and obstinacy.

Nakhl Gardani Festival

One of the famous spectacular ritual ceremonies in Yazd province is called Nakhl-Gardani or Nakhl-Bardari, a symbolic representation of Imam Hossein's coffin, resembling an Imam’s funeral in the 10th(Ashura) of Muharram. Nakhl is a wooden scaffold shaped like a tree leaf which mourners cover with black fabrics and hang hundreds of swords and daggers from it or tie other decorations such as mirrors, fruits, decorative knots, and silk clothes.

Nakhl is carried on the shoulders of hundreds of old or young male mourners; They turn the Nakhl several times around the square with harmony, despite its heaviness. The other male mourners gather in the center and the women in a bigger circle around them or on the rooftop of the buildings nearby crying out religious chants.

The foreign tourists willingly attend the ceremony to familiarize themselves with the destiny of the third Imam of Shias, the ritual traditions, and the hospitality of Yazdians. They also participate enthusiastically in the specialized food(Nazri) preparation process for mourners and then enjoy the authentic taste of Persian cuisine. Other plans organized these days are Ta'zie, a theatrical re-enactment of the Battle of Karbala inspired by 300-year historical and religious narrations, and Sineh-Zani [beating the chest].

In the meantime, some workshops are held by religious experts fluent in foreign languages about the purpose of Imam Hossein's uprising, his martyrdom, and Iranian-Islamic spiritual and cultural rituals and traditions for foreign tourists.

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