In Persian Gulf's maritime culture, Ushar ritual has these meanings:

• Launching any kind of vessel and cargo ship (in Bushehr)
• A Lenj boat that has been made and is ready for being launched (in Kong port)

Actually, Ushar ritual is consisted of a series of actions that residents of Persian Gulf did from the starting point of building a ship till it's end, in order to celebrate the launching of the new ship and to remove evil force from this ship and it's passengers.

How is the Ushar ritual performed?

In the past, when residents of Persian Gulf started building a new boat, they would put someone to guard the device day and night so that a woman would not cross the main beam in the middle of the barge. Because these people believed that this work brings evil forces to the ship and in this way, every year several crew members will die! After finishing the construction of the device, one hundred to two hundred men would carry the device to the side and launch it into the sea with a special ceremony. For this purpose, they used special reels called "Gafieh", wooden cylinders and mats woven from palm leaves.
Carrying the ship to the sea and launching it took between 3-4 weeks; and on the last day when the ship was launched, people happily went to the owner of the ship or the captain and lifted him up on their hands and threw him in the sea! When everything was ready to move, people would sing a song called "Sala" and the owner of the device would sacrifice an animal and attach it's skin to the body of the ship.

Singing "Sala"

The Sala song is a special song that a leader will sing and others will answer him with tuned words or small sentences. The content of this song is Arabic; and it is sung in praise of God and Mohammad, the Prophet of Muslims. Reciting Salah continues until the ship reached the water, and like Yamal Khani, the people who were carrying the device adjust and coordinate their movement with the sound of the Sala song. In this way, the movement is once on the chest and once to the back; and in this way the ship is taken to the sea in a zigzag path.

The importance of Ushar ritual lies in giving ritual value to the newly built ship; because there was no device with that name until now. And also, when the device is being built, it is located in the east-west direction and has no connection to the sea, and only on the day of the Ushar ceremony, it changes it's direction towards the sea (south), and it is as if the device is connected to the sea with the Ushar ceremony. In addition to giving meaning to the newly built system, Ushar ritual also helps to create social solidarity. Unfortunately, this ceremony has been forgotten and is no longer performed due to the lack of construction of large Lenj boats such as Boom, and the decline of maritime trade in the traditional way.