Heading a delegation, Jahangiri travelled to Iraq to participate in the religious procession between the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala to pay tribute to Imam Hussein (PBUH).
The Iranian vice president along some other senior Iranian ministers will also visit the holy shrine of Imam Ali (PBUH), the first Shiite Imam, in the city of Najaf during his one-day trip.
Arba’een, meaning the fortieth in Arabic, is observed 40 days after Ashura, the tenth day of the lunar calendar month of Muharram, when Imam Hussein, the third Shia Imam, was martyred at the hands of the tyrant of the time, Yazid I, back in the seventh century.
The Arbaeen mourning ceremony is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. Each year, millions of pilgrims, mainly from Iraq and Iran, travel long routes on foot to Karbala, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein is located.
Last year, around 20 million pilgrims gathered in Karbala on Arbaeen, making the world’s largest human gathering in modern history.