Like every year, today hundreds of Shiite Muslims gathered in Piraeus to celebrate the holy day Ashura with blood, in mourning of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

Everyone participated in rituals as shown in the pictures below.

The rituals involve lashes and cuts with chains and blades.

An extremely harsh self inflicted custom in order for the believers to feel the physical pain and agony of the grandson of the Prophet.

According to the tradition history Imam Hussein was killed along with his companions at the battle of Kerbala. He was decapitated and his body mutilated, leaving many Shia to celebrate the anniversary with flagellation, to the point of bleeding …