TEHRAN – More than 102,000 Iranians have so far registered to participate in the Arbaeen pilgrimage, Amir Moradi, an official with the Arbaeen headquarters has stated.

Arbaeen pilgrimage also known as Arbaeen trek, a distinctively Shia spiritual exercise, is an epic journey gathering Shias as well as Sunnis, even Christians and Zoroastrians, etc. from various nationalities altogether making their ways to the holy Iraqi cities of Najaf and Karbala, walking towards the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) commemorating the 40th day of his martyrdom in the battle of Karbala, in 680 AD.

Pilgrims should register in Samah website prior to the trek and then apply for the visa online.

A total of 102,023 people have applied for visas, of whom 74,301 have been granted the permits, he noted, Khabaronline news agency reported on Sunday.

Three provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Fars have the highest number of pilgrims, he highlighted.

He went on to say that 15,597 people from Tehran province, 6,824 people from Khuzestan province, 6,526 people from Fars province, 5,000 people from Khorasan Razavi province, 4,987 people from Isfahan province and 2,986 people from Bushehr province have registered so far in the system.

Last year about 1.8 million Iranians took part in the ceremony. This is while in 2011 only 50,000 took the trek to Karbala which shows a great surge in the number of pilgrims taking the long walk to pay tribute to the third Shia Imam.

FB/MG