Ashura Day & Italian Gardens: On Tuesday January 30, 2007 I got here to Hyde Park near Marble Arch the place Shi’ite Muslims had been gathering for his or her annual Ashura Day Procession from there to the Notting Hill Mosque.
The procession celebrates the life and beliefs of Imam Husain, the grandson of the Prophet, and mourns his martyrdom at Karbala in Iraq in 61 AH (AD680.) His instance in dying for human dignity, human rights and the goals of his religion encourage them in attempting to dwell a superb and ethical life and so they search Husain’s blessing on their day by day lives.
Right here is a part of the put up I wrote in 2007 of the occasion (with slight corrections):
A number of thousand folks joined within the annual procession in London, making their approach slowly from Hyde Park to the mosque in Notting Hill. Many wore black, and all joined within the chanting of “Ya Husain” accompanied by the beating of drums clashing of sanj (cymbals) and the blowing of trumpets, together with calls to prayer. These participating beat their breasts, largely in a symbolic trend, though there have been teams of younger males who every now and then swung their arms vigorously.
The Ashura Procession is spectacular to see, and everybody participating appeared to welcome my curiosity in what was happening and had been joyful to be photographed.
The climate was boring and it quickly started to get darkish; it didn’t assist that I had considered one of my fiddle-fingers technical catastrophe days, the place I saved discovering I’d altered the digicam settings with out being conscious of doing so. But it surely was the sort of event the place it might be exhausting to not get some attention-grabbing photos.
The procession was slow-moving – I wrote “it was transferring at a pace that might not have embarrassed a snail” and by the point it reached Lancaster Gate I had taken many photos and likewise wanted a relaxation. Nightfall was approaching quickly – and there had been little sufficient gentle all day. I went into the Italian Gardens and took just a few photos there within the falling gloom, experimenting just a little with flash for a few of them.
The Grade II listed Italian Gardens had been Prince Albert’s thought, and constructed for Queen Victoria in 1862 as part of the gardens of Kensington Palace which had been opened to the general public in 1841. Albert had beforehand created an Italian backyard at their Isle of Wight Osborne Home.
The gardens had been designed by among the massive names of the day. Sir Charles Barry and Robert Richardson Banks designed the Pump Home (now a shelter), Sir James Pennethorne the general structure, and the reliefs and sculptures had been by the sadly named John Thomas. The primary monument within the backyard erected in 1862 by public subscription was a statue by William Calder Marshall of Charles Jenner, the pioneer of vaccination towards smallpox. The gardens had been renovated just a few years in the past.
The gardens are on the level the place the River Westbourne (recognized by a dozen totally different names at numerous occasions and locations) as soon as flowed into Hyde Park. The river comes from numerous sources in West Hampstead and Brondesbury, flowing by way of Kilburn and thru Hyde Park (the place it was dammed in 1730 to provide the Serpentine) after which on by way of culverts and a big pipe throughout Sloane Sq. Station and on into Bazalgette’s Northern Low Stage Sewer – with solely storm discharges reaching the Thames at Pimlico. These ought to finish with the completion of London’s Tremendous Sewer.
By 1834 the expansion of London and widespread adoption of water closets had largely turned the river right into a foul sewer and it may not be used to provide the Serpentine, The water for this lake and the gardens now comes from three artesian wells bored in Hyde Park.
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