A Shiite Muslim man holds his son as another man in the left slashes his head with a razor during the annual ritual to mark Ashoura Day in the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh, on Thursday, March 13, 2003.

A Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim mother helps her son beat himself with a sword during a ceremony of Ashoura held in Nabatiyeh, March 13, 2003. Shiites in Lebanon commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by his rival over 1,400 years ago. More than 150,000 Lebanese packed the streets of Beirut’s southern suburbs on Thursday, chanting ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ in a mass rally called by Lebanon’s Hizbollah guerrilla group.

More horrific photos of this ritual.