Hey everyone. It was stupid of me to think I would find the time during Eid to blog, but hey,.. I'm doing my best! For those who have no idea what Eid is, it's the three-day holiday (in Muslim countries) to celebrate the end of Ramadan and a month of fasting. Eid is all about feasting, spending time with relatives and neighbors, sometimes exchanging gifts, and just having fun. Eid in Salalah basically involved visiting every single relative you have (that means hundreds of people). It also involves opening your house/majlis to every single relative and neighbor you have and being 'available' and dressed-up 24/7. It's funny that Dhofaris offer the exact same things in their majlis; three jugs of Tang artificial crap drink, Danish cookies, coffee, tea, nuts, toffees, Omani Halwa (a traditional sweet), and a bowl of fruit. This goes on for three or four days non-stop. Some families have become more creative and are actually baking their own cakes and cookies. I've visited about 12 homes in the past 48 hours and I'm only half-way through my list. Do you have ANY idea how exhausting that is? From house to house: 'Eid Mubarak, how are you? How is your mother? How is your father? How is your sister? How is your brother? What is new? What is goin' on? How're y'all doin?'. Listening to people's news for 12 hours a day is interesting but at the end of the day (i.e 1 a.m ) you collapse into bed and have the strangest dreams involving your neighbors being eaten up by bears and your great-aunt feeding you your 100th cookie. Sigh. What do you do during Eid? What are your family traditions? For those of you who do not live in a Muslim country, how do you celebrate Eid?
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I think it is a very nice thing to have such an occasion to visit everyone of our relatives.
ReplyDeleteM.D
I have had way too many sweets celebrating Eid with my Somali friend too. What is Omani Halwa like? The Somali variety is orange, gelatinous, and usually flavored with cardamom. Its waaaaay too sweet for me, so I would usually just take a very small piece and eat it slowly to be nice. I'm not a fan of Tang either. There's always vimto, which I also don't like. I think I just dislike sweet drinks in general, unless its cardamom, cloves and cinnamon tea. :)
ReplyDeleteVisiting that many people is overwhelming to be sure, but its a guaranteed way to see people that you might not visit often otherwise. American's generally don't celebrate their holidays with the same level of dedication anymore lol. Glad you have enjoyed your Eid though.
Eid!!! It is just a waste of time. In Islam it is supposed to be a tome to think about and help poor people but it seems that every one is enjoying it and even those who don't have enough money to teach their children. I mean it is just a commercial period for three of four days.
ReplyDeleteAny way forget what i said and have a nice Eid. :)
mbarak al eed :) ADG
ReplyDeletelool!! i feel sorry for you and in away i thank god that my eid ends by day 2!!!
ReplyDeletei spent this eid and home with movies and sleeping =D
Ok, so my reply came a little late:
ReplyDeleteStacy, Omani Halwa sounds like Somali Halwa! It's thick, gelatinous, and sweet. Usually spiced with cardamom and saffron. But it's dark brown most of the time.
My Doppelganger , hope you had a good Eid and didn't torture anyone. Is Axel your sister?
Standy, your Eid was way too depressing. Movies and sleeping?! Dude.... :)
Good one...
ReplyDeleteNadia, Good effort. I've been visiting your space (blog) and I would like to congratulate you for the good effort. sister...
Rgds;
http://migrantbirdblog.blogspot.com/
Hey, thanks. I'm checking out your blog now.
ReplyDelete