TEHRAN -- The UNESCO is scheduled to scrutinize the ritual of the carpet washing in Mashhad Ardehal to register it on its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) has sent the file on the ritual UNESCO, the director of CHTHO’s Office for Registration, Preservation and Restoration of Intangible Cultural and Natural Heritage, Atusa Momeni, told the Persian service of IRNA on Wednesday.
UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will decide on the registration of the ritual on the list during its 7th meeting, which will be held in Grenada from November 25 to 30.
The ritual of the carpet washing symbolizes a funeral held for Imamzadeh Soltan Ali (AS), a descendant of Imam Muhammad Baqir (AS), in the region of Mashhad Ardehal in 732 CE.
The ritual is held annually on the second Friday of fall by the young men of the city of Fin and the village of Khaveh, located near the shrine of the imamzadeh.
Some heralds are sent to Fin and Khaveh a week before to call on people to attend the ceremony.
A large carpet, which is kept at the shrine, is wrapped in green textile and delivered to the young men whirling sticks in the air. The sticks symbolize the clubs the people of the region used as weapons centuries ago.
Reciting religious poems, they take the carpet to wash it in the Shazdeh Hossein Spring near the shrine. Afterwards, it is delivered back to the guardians of the shrine.
Thousands of people annually travel to Mashhad Ardehal to watch the ceremony.
Noruz, the Iranian New Year celebration, and the titles and components of the radifs in traditional Iranian music were registered on UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
The music of the Bakhshis of the Khorasan region, the Pahlevani and Zurkhaneh sports, the Iranian passion play tazieh, the traditional skills of carpet weaving in the Fars region and the traditional skills of carpet weaving in Kashan are other Iranian items that were registered on the list in November 2010.
MMS/YAW
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