| lishouyan: A religious and traditional carpet washing ritual |
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 The historical Qalishouyan Ceremony as one of the most remarkable religious events of the Shiites is held annually on the second Friday of the Iranian month of Mehr.
The origin of the ceremony can be traced back to the time when Sultan Ali (who was invited from Medina to Mashhad-e Ardehal more than 12 centuries ago) was martyred by the governor's forces in an uneven battle.
After his followers from the area arrived too late to help him they wrapped his body in a rug. They then washed his body in a stream 150 meters away, before burying him.
So for hundreds of years people in their thousands from the surrounding area and beyond (including Qum, Kashan, Nashlaj, Khomein, Mahallat, Saveh, Delijan, Golpayegan, Yazd, and many other towns) have flocked to Mashhad-e Ardehal to mourn and represent this event each year on the second Friday of the Iranian month of Mehr (early October), since this was the day Sultan Ali was killed.
Some pilgrims even walk to the shrine from places that are large distances away. The crowd of pilgrims then leave the shrine carrying the remains of the same sacred carpet (that was used to wrap the body of Sultan Ali) on their shoulders, and while mourning, symbolically beat the remains of the carpet with long sticks to show their hatred towards the enemies of Sultan Ali and to demand revenge for his martyrdom, and also as a means to clean the carpet. Throughout the ceremony no outsider is allowed to touch the remains of the carpet. The pilgrims wear black clothes, sing religious songs, cry and beat their chests (as a sign of grief and mourning) and rotate their sticks in the air and rotate the carpet around the yard of the shrine. They then wash the carpet in a special stream of water near the shrine. The people believe the water then becomes holy, with many pilgrims applying the stream water upon their bodies and also bottling the water to take home with them. The pilgrims then return the carpet back to the shrine and the mourning ends at noon with a giant feast, where thousands are fed for free, before finally returning to their homes.
The Qalishouyan Ceremony is to be registered on the National Intangible Heritage List.
Announcing this, Hussein Yazdanmehr, caretaker of Kashan Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department, told IRNA that given the importance of religious tourism, experts are completing the process of registering this historical event.
“The preliminary work of registering this spiritual ceremony is underway,” he said.
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