Festive Eid

You have been named supreme ruler of the universe. Your first order of business is creating and instituting a holiday or festival in your honor. What day of the year is your holiday? What special events will take place? Describe YOU DAY in as great a detail as you can muster: the special foods we’ll consume, the decorations we’ll use…everything.

What? As supreme ruler of anything, is that the first thing I’d do? Declare a holiday in my own honor? I REALLY HOPE NOT!

My favorite holiday of the year is the festive occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Eid-ul-Fitr comes at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. This month is my favorite time of the year as fasting kindles spirituality and closeness to God inside of me and a feeling of goodwill and hope. The difficult part is to keep this feeling alive for the rest of the year. At the end of the month we celebrate Eid with new clothes and gifts and lots of food.

We have special dishes for the occasion and since Eid comes at the end of the fasting month the emphasis is on food and lots of it. We go to visit all our relatives and friends and in each house we have to taste everything that is made.

When I was small we would collect Eidi or small amounts of money from our elders. Since I was the youngest I even got Eidi from my elder brother and sister. I don’t remember what I ever did with the money I collected, just the joy of having real money.

When I got married I saw that my mother-in-law would buy small gifts for the children of the family. This I thought was a better and more thoughtful practice than just handing out money. So now I try to do the same for the children of my family. This last Eid I gave my football-crazy nephew a football magazine and it was amazing to see the joy on his face. He must have thanked me at least 5 times.

Another tradition we have is for the girls to wear henna and bangles on Eid and traditional clothes. The girls really enjoy dressing up but it’s very difficult to convince the boys to wear the traditional shalwar kameez. It’s a shame because they look so cute!

Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us

1. The Lurker’s List | Our Day
2. The Sweet and Treacherous New King | Momma Said There’d Be Days Like This
3. Daily Prompt: Happy Me Day | DCMontreal: Blowing the Whistle on Society
4. Dates in December | Sue’s Trifles
5. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us | Awl and Scribe
6. There Is A Creepy Arrogance About The Daily Prompts | The Jittery Goat
7. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us « Mama Bear Musings
8. Festivus | Miss Pelican’s Perch
9. Festive? | Faith, Life and Compassion
10. I Proclaim This Day…. | Finale to an Entrance
11. What a Day that Would Be! | meanderedwanderings
12. Holidaze… | cacramer01’s Blog
13. Festival Of Flowers | Flowers and Breezes
14. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
15. Happy Happy Holidays! Wooohooowooo! | Haiku By Ku
16. Feast From Another Perspective | annezheng
17. A Call For Prayer | Kansa Muse
18. Your Birthday | sixty, single and surviving
19. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us | kimmiecode 🙂
20. The International Day of Sue Kerr – We Need a Holiday
21. Festivus, the Festival of the People | I Write Therefore I Am
22. Just a fantasy… | Hope* the happy hugger
23. S. Thomas Summers | Daily Prompt: Festive (Jesus)
24. My First Post of Many–Daily Prompt: FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US | J. Oliver The Writer
25. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us | Basically Beyond Basic
26. Too selfish | Life is great
27. Daily Prompt: Festivus for the Rest of Us | Crow Arrow, Inc.
28. Festivus for the Rest of Us | The Nameless One
29. 52 weeks a year, every year from now on | The Number FiftyTwo
30. Intergalactic Hotspur Day? Meh. No Thanks | Edward Hotspur