allowed to touch the remains of the carpet. The pilgrims wear black clothes, sing religious songs, cry and beat their chests (as a sign of grief and mourning) and rotate their sticks in the air and rotate the carpet around the yard of the shrine. They then wash the carpet in a special stream of water near the shrine. The people believe the water then becomes holy, with many pilgrims applying the stream water upon their bodies and also bottling the water to take home with them. The pilgrims then return the carpet back to the shrine and the mourning ends at noon with a giant feast, where thousands are fed for free, before finally returning to their homes. In 2009, there were 200,000 pilgrims gathered in Mashhad Ardehal for the Carpet Washing Ceremony. See also Mourning of Muharram References External links Imamzadeh Sultan Ali shrine in Mashhad-e Ardehal Photo Gallery: Carpet Washing Ceremony in Mashhad-e Ardehal Populated places in Kashan County