Up to 300,000 black-clad Shiite Muslims, some beating their chests and others slashing their heads with blades, on Thursday commemorated the death 14 centuries ago of their martyr, Hussein ibn Ali, DPA reported.
The day of Ashoura marks the killing of the Muslim Shiite Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, in a 680 AD battle at Karbala in Iraq. Hussein's death is regarded as the start of the schism between Muslim Sunnis and Shiites.
In Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of Hezbollah, thousands of Shiite men and women started their day by listening to mourning versus and poems that reflect the tragedy and sermons on how Hussein and his family were martyred.
An estimated 300,000 people - women, men and children - marched behind Hezbollah's yellow flags in Beirut. Units of barefooted Hezbollah followers beat their chest in rhythm in a show of sorrow at the death of Hussein.
In Lebanese towns like the southern-village of Nabatiyeh, 45 kilometers south of Beirut, the commemoration of Ashoura takes a more bloody and macabre spectacle, as young men cut their foreheads and beat the wound to make the blood splash out as they march.
Hezbollah, following in their main-backer Iran's footsteps Iran, has made attempts to ban the blood-letting.
For several years now the group has been trying to encourage participants to donate blood - instead of spilling it on the streets. The movement has set up this year blood donation tents for this purpose.
Hezbollah chief Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to give what was described as "an important speech" at noon prayer, to mark the end of the ten-day Ashoura commemoration.
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