A Qualitative Study of Iranian Pilgrims' Motives for Participating in Arbaeen Pilgrimage Ritual

The Arbaeen ritual is an important religious phenomenon in Shiite society that has attracted the attention of the world in recent years with the remarkable rise of pilgrims’ number. The presence of millions of Iranian pilgrims in the ritual is one of the unprecedented events that has marked the largest Iranian mass travel abroad. Iranian pilgrims who take part in this ritual embark on a journey of varying reasons and motives, traveling more than 80 kilometers on foot. This article studies the Iranian pilgrims' motives for participating in the Arbaeen march through qualitative ethnography. In this regard, we conducted semi-structured interviews with the pilgrims and closely observed their mental worlds and moods. The findings show that Iranian pilgrims turn to this ritual with three types of motives at both individual and social levels and show three senses of "need", "obligation" and "enthusiasm". Individual motives are generally derived from one's need, and social motives are often out of a sense of obligation. Enthusiasm is also a common feeling among pilgrims. These motives and emotions are shaped at three levels of spontaneous, normative, and ideological communalism and provide the ground for persuading pilgrims to attend the ritual.