We will not lose. It is not over," whispered one young woman wearing a chador before vanishing into the crowd.
Conversely, other attendees expressed deep remorse that they had not done more to protect the supreme leader, whom they regarded as a father of the nation.
"Our leaders called on us to keep our head up. We are ashamed because we did not do enough when he was alive.
He was a leader that wanted to make Iran strong," said Maryam Ghiyasi, a doctor.
Her husband, Hamid Razavi, an engineer, praised Iran's leadership for being the first in 200 years to sign a peace treaty that did not see Iran giving up foreign land.
"I am here for so many reasons – to make some people hopeful and to make some people hopeless," said Ali Hovayzavi, a software engineer for accountancy firms.
Hovayzavi, who narrowly avoided bombs in Tehran, expressed no fear.
"I was not frightened. Everyone somewhere will die and no one except God specifies when and where and how you die.
Even if there are many bombs surrounding me, and God does not want me to die, I will not die," he said.
Some individuals in the procession accosted reporters to state that Iran's leadership now needed to race to build a nuclear weapon.
"Would Japan have been attacked at Hiroshima if it had nuclear weapons?" asked Reza Aziz.
"Would Russia be safe after the Ukraine invasion?
Why is it OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons and not to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty?"
