Understanding the Lived Experience of Pilgrims of Arba’een Walk in 2016 (The Contexts of the Arba’een Mega Event Formation)

Understanding the conditions and context of the religious tourism establishment as an event is immensely necessary and important. The current research, studies the Arba’een event, as a unique phenomenon in the field of religious tourism. Following the interpretative paradigm and thematic analysis approach and by means of the qualitative research methods techniques (semi-structured interviews, crosswalk, and participant observation) the current research tries to understand the lived experience of the Iranian participants in the Arba’een walk. By means of this procedure it tries to discover the nature, context and factors in line with the formation of the Arba’een event. The findings indicate that the conditions and the underlying factors of the Arba’een event were multi-mode, and the enormous participation of the people in these walking events has not been just diminished to one element. The cultural-ideological, social-economic, and political-national factors and contexts are of the important factors and, their diversity is the hallmark of the mega event and the uniqueness of this event.