Joyful Reflections: My Experience Celebrating Eid al-Fitr!
The Muslim New Day and the Significance of Maghrib Prayer
Did you know in Muslims' New Day doesn't start at 12:00 but around the maghrib prayer which is also the 4th prayer of the day happened around 7 pm? See, just started reading, and a fair chance you learned something new. Next time surprise your Muslim Friend around 7 pm and the last month of the Muslim Calendar to wish new year. Yup, we have a whole different calendar system too. Why I am focusing too much on Magrib? Let's uncover this one step at a time. Stick with me, it will be a journey filled with wonders.
The Preparations and Traditions of Eid al-Fitr Eve
So, What is Eid? How many Eid are there? Which one I am talking about and why makes it unique? The literal meaning of Eid is "Festival or Holiday" but often referred to as the day of Happiness. There are two types of Eid and today we will discuss my routine of Eid al-Fitr.
So, the day of Eid started around 7 pm, and many guests gathered to receive one of my house members from Itakaf. Itakaf is similar to cutting off from the world and spending spiritual time with the creator. 30 days of fasting and then this moment of joy to meet my family member. We did our last Iftar (food) and guests left one by one. Since we had Eid the next day most of our time was spent preparing food and doing house chores. I remember visiting the tailor around 3 midnight and the parlor. No, I hadn't visited a parlor, men go to makeup parlors rarely (are at least the people I know) I was there for my sister. The night ended giving me only 1.5 hours to sleep.
I woke up at about around 5:50 in the morning. Took a shower, dressed up, drink tea, and then it was time to pray around 7:45. Eid prayers are different than regular prayers (come two times a year) and no matter how much someone tries to remember most of the time we notice people lagging in prayers, trusting their guts. Eid prayed is an enjoyable time of my day. When Imam (scholar) was talking about their old age shelters, I poked my dad with my knee. It's something I do all the time when someone talks about old age shelters, I enjoy seeing 1000s of reactions in seconds on my parent's faces when I do this joke on them, anytime anywhere, it works.
Online Fun, Calls, and Excitement
After coming back home, all my favorite wasn't prepared yet, I did another joke in HivePakistan discord,
I enjoyed giving people tongue twisters while I was wishing for Eid Day. Then I joined some other chats like neoxian city for more Eid day online fun. My all applications notification are turned off, so when I opened WhatsApp, I reached tons of messages wishing me. Most of them were copy-pasted and sent to all. After replying to them, I had to attend calls from my cousin and other members (my father's sisters and their family, etc). After wishing everyone it was time to collect EIDI (taking and giving money on Eid day). I don't remember what I gave to others but I did collect a handsome amount of Eidi as most people now even send EIDI online so no geographical restrictions (yes, you can tip my EIDI on this blog too. Don't be shy.). My mom was demanding 200$ as her EIDI from me cause I earn online, LOL.
A Visit to the Graveyard and Reflections on Life and Death
Ok, so I slept after all these online, calls and other talks. I woke up around 3 in the afternoon and quickly wished for my food. A side note chickpeas chaat is my favorite ("Sufad chany ki chaat", everything sounds expensive in English, xD). Why I ate quickly was cause it was time to meet my belated Grandmother. Yup, we visited the graveyard around Assar prayer (3rd prayer of the day) and the site of the graveyard should remember us of death and sorrow and reminded me more about life and its beauty. Somewhere around 4:00 to 4:30 pigeons gathered around the graveyard. Some of the graves were too astonishing. I saw one grave which was decorated with smooth rocks. The precision, and smoothness of that grave and environment around us were breathtaking. For once, I actually forgot we are not the only ones there and this is a graveyard, not a heaven. While coming back from the graveyard my dad asked me If I wanna eat something. It was another shock to my father when I told him the direction of a specific shop from LASSI (yogurt-based beverage with a smoothie-like consistency). Why a shock? He was unaware if I prefer Lassi. Another reason for wishful thinking about it is they didn't let me roam around much so I shouldn't know about the city. My family once found out after 2 years when I told them I can travel SOLO by bus. Nah, our buses are built differently even the Fast and Furious movie is nothing in comparison to our buses.
A Memorable EID Night at the Beach
After spending quality time drinking Lassi with my father we reached home. We actually had a plan to visit my aunt (my mother's sister) but my family canceled it cause they were the tired cause of various reasons. I asked permission from my dad to visit my cousin's place around 20 days ago, if you read my blog "Everything about me and sports!" then you will understand why I asked permission in advance. While the actual was to give him a visit on day 2, now I left to meet him on day 1 of EID. He lives by himself while his mother lives in the village so yes He is a good cook. Can't express the taste of Kheer and the Custard he made also with other food items. I never in a million dreamed about visiting his place on the first day of EID cause it's usually reserved for attending guests as I am the only son. We went to eat out at a place which was over crowed and had low standards according to me but the food was delicious cause I expected it to be different. He ate every cell of my brain with his talks before the food came (literally I was annoyed by the topic choices as he was only doing it to mess with me), it was a relief that my brain cells generated faster than he can finish them. Even another person who was from his staff (his employee) was feeling uncomfortable. After some time, it was time to leave around 10 but my heart wanted to stay longer. What do you think will happen next (I already got permission by pre-booking but now I wanted to extend it till morning, OH POOR LITTLE BOY ALONE IN NIGHT FAR FROM FAMILY, lol)? I contact my father and told him how he, his other two business partners, and their staff want to go to Beech and spend the night there. BOOM, to my surprise my father gave me permission to spend EID night on Beech with 11 others. We were in Suzuki (used for business deliveries) with the back open where 10 were standing enjoying and singing in the open air while traveling while I and my cousin were sitting in the front seats. The whole travel experience was next level.
On beech, we all ate food items things as per our liking. We enjoyed ourselves a lot in the waves, at night and much much more. I changed my dress cause of sand from beech, cleaned myself in the shower properly, and slept after coming back. Around 10 in the morning, he dropped me at my place. Oh, and we also had a last KitKat shake together on the way.
EID ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITY 1 HBD:
Comment a picture of your dress and the food you had on Eid. If you don't celebrate Eid then your last festival. One person will WIN 1 HBD tip on their comment. Yup, consider it as EIDI from my side, lol.
Wanna read more? Check out my First Day Of Year 2023!
It would have been exciting if I took this turn in life but instead I was on my laptop working on Learning Managing System usability. I sacrificed my pleasure over important stuff. It was a 3 persons task but all others were celebrating the new year so responsibility fall on my shoulder and I completed it within the deadline. I don't know why people assign deadlines or exam schedules in the new year. :)
Set dlmmqb as your PROXY VOTER
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I cant participate in the contest! But it was an interesting day! Is that the real beach picture? It looks nice
you can show your dress and food from any last festival without showing your face.
it's from unsplash as shown
https://unsplash.com/photos/u_nsiSvPEak
My cousin lives in industrial area so it's not safe to use mobile. So I left my phone at home. In his area most of people don't have smart phones as they r industrial labours working under different factories, yes he have a mini factory kind off. So cause of high desire to have a smartphone by them and high rate of mobile snatching, it's not safe to use your phone to click pictures or even carry it around. In my area, I live in a populated city and things are different here. But mostly peaceful and relaxing times are spent without smartphone in less populated areas.
This is very educational information for someone/me who is a not on the same faith.
Can't participate in the contest as I very rarely celebrate any occasion/festival.
Have more great days ahead of you. Keep on rockin'! 😊
I am glad you found it informative. I slept like a dead horse after finishing this. In the end my hands were almost shaking and I had trouble adding "<>", It's like I almost put my 100% in this. I will surely come back reading my own content in future like how I read my previous content. It's nostalgic vibes.
Maybe u can share a pic of coffee with a friend? You don't need to show face in it. It's about connecting people so anything can be shared, maybe you cat? Winner will ofcourse be the person who attempt it right but I will get a face to have a glimpse of your enjoy full moments.
You bet I do...
Did you noticed my twitter new gif? Doing some efforts to bring web2 to web3. Going extra miles.
A quick survey, how did your found my post? Currently I have 3 comments and all r cartel fam. :)
Oh and check your profile I sent a small surprise, you will understand it when you will see it shhhh.......
To know it's perks see HL discord last annocement.
Sorry for the late reply. I've been busy this past few weeks.
Anyways, for me, as I've said, I found your post very informative - It makes me know more about you, your community and your family. It's like listening to a friend sharing their especial personal experience. 😊
Love it! 😍
Appologize, I meant how did you found my post? In your hive feed? Twitter? Or discord link shares from post promotion section?
In my Hive feed. 😊
Hope i say this right but Eid sa'id and i hope you are rewarded for the kindness you do in this world
but in seriousness you have earned it
!PIZZA
More power more responsibility. :)
Charity begins at home. I took the initial steps by following that 75/25 rule. More power means more helping capacity. Alot of things drive my energy everyday to work hard and mostly it's thinking about others. Otherwise if it was just me I might not had a glass of water.... Laziness actives for self related tasks for others it's just different.....
Of course and your work ethic is impressive, plus the 75/25 rule is a good rule to follow
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@dadspardan(1/20) tipped @dlmmqb
Bruh, I don't sleeeeep when there's special occasion... After Eid prayers and greetings peeps or fam... Got the whole day to sleep 😂😂
Karachities and Beach, haha! Mazay Hein Bhai logo k jb Dil kra sea view ka chakar lga ao. ⛱️
I knew my routine of first Eid day, so I took a short nap.
This one was not the usual. If you remember me visiting farm house...... It's in route of motorway. Cause area is less populated so beech is clean too....
Haha nice!
Lucky brah, we ain't have beach here... Just mountains. 😶🌫️
That means you can do hiking 🥾
Wow....it was a long read indeed, but was so entertaining. You gave me an insight on what EId is all about, the different types of Eid, the timing for the Muslims new year according to the calendar and other new things I learnt about Muslims on this article. That's a great one DLM.
I see that you had a great moment on that day both offline and online..
Even the visit to the graveyard with your dad to meet grandma was a lot of reflection and life and death.. just wondering why the pigeons gathered around that time?
And then the beach hangout...it was all a great way to relax on such day of happiness or festival.
Happy EID celebration once again 🎊🎉
For the engagement activity aspect, let me check my phone and see if I haven't deleted my Christmas food and dress pictures..😂
My second missionary journey..lol (edited)
My last Christmas dish ....
This is white rice with vegetable 🥕 🥕 🥒🍆 sauce and fried chicken 🐔 with chilled juice. I couldn't find a picture of the dress I wore that day...lol
Even I sometimes forget about Muslim calendar months. This might help, I saw poems version but this one was better to understand:
Indeed.
Graveyard had some kind of bowls attached with cement even some on near by graves. Pearl millet (bajra) was in those bowls cause of courtesy of visitors. Why they do it? Cause they believe it helps reduce sins of the person. It was a different type of site to see. On day one whole graveyard in morning around 8-10 (ALOT) and around 4 (comparatively less) was filled like the whole world came in one place. I feels more like a market rush place then a abandon place. Some people cry their too but we can feel sad but crying with tears and loud voice is not something that people do. It have reasoning related to religion. So people try not to hurt others more by showing sadness in a disturbing way. Cause of this it's not as sad as people might imagine it. How sad someone will be visiting grandma after 5-10 years? We get used to it....
I wanted to write more about beech but I slept in between writing from here. Then I woke and completed formating and tags half sleeping. My laptop and mobile was on my bed. I got too tired that I didn't put my laptop back to a safe place.
I feel culturally connected to the dish you shared. We also have similar things here. Maybe you should try biryani too. But still my favourite is payao. If u don't mind, I can help you from Pakistani community if u decide to try any Pakistani dish.
Wow, another series of insights here
Thanks for your time in explaining better to me
Trying parkistan food would be great but I am skeptical on if I can get the ingredients here in Nigeria
I know many nigreans, I will also hunt for your ingredient stores in Nigeria hehe
@nkemakonam89 CONGO PONGO! You won 1 hbd from this post engagement activity. I am tipping it on your most recent blog using peakd tip feature.
Well received with many thanks 😇🥰
I am super excited 😊
Thank you DLM 👍
Oh the day starts at 7pm in Muslims? On the other way, in our belief the day starts when the sun sets. This is something new to each of us but atleast we have learned something. Thanks for sharing some information that we didn't know.
Muslim day typically begins at the sunset (Maghrib time) and lasts until the next Maghrib.
Oh we're the same. We get that fact from our Bible. Is it also being taught in the Quran?
You can say that 🤔
Heck, I was wondering why you are talking about Magrib instead of Eid al-Fitr, thank goodness you are asking me to wait patiently for what's to come
May I ask why? What are the old age shelters about?
hahaha, I remember you giving me one of your tongue twisters on your celebration day 🤣
hahahhaha, I hope you gave her...lol because you sure are earning a ton of that money.
My condolences, @dlmmqb, may her soul rest in perfect peace
You don't mean it...hahhahaha...so, someone is his parent's beloved child whom they protect like an egg...how nice 🙂
hahaha, what was he talking about? I am curious
You sure had lots of fun with your cousin, I am happy that your dad gave you that last-minute permission. I want to see what a KitKat handshake looks like..lol
We had an Easter celebration as Christians right before your fasting ended and you celebrated Eid, here is a picture of the food I ate on that day. and I have a post to accompany how that day went
Those people who don't want to take care of their parents can leave them in old age shelters as the name says. It's a joke between me and my parents that I will leave them at old age home one day. xD
200$ according to purchasing power is too much.
I consider it toxic love.
I can't find the exact flavor in the gallery but you will get the idea.
You have written everything with detailed information about Eid which I liked most.
I also celebrated Eid almost like you but in the evening time I returned home. On the first day, I visited relative's house with my cousin and on the second day I went some other relatives house with my father but in the evening time I became sick( fever). And my Eid ends there.
My mom expecting a fridge from me for the next Eid cause my mom thinks that I am earning a lot of money from online 😅.
Oh shit! I missed it. I was totally offline on that day😭.
It took me time to write it thus and posted on 4-5 day.
It would help if you were careful during Eid, I bet your sickness came from bad sleeping routine. Sleep on time buddy.
Damn it, your and my life are similar in some cultural ways.
Yup, I just announced the winner in today morning.
It's my bad luck. It doesn't matter. Different kinds of opportunities will come again.
I don't know the exact reason. But I think it was for taking shower several times in a day because of the extreme heat. Thank you for your concern but in the last two months I go to sleep early means approximately 1.00 a.m. I am trying also to reduce the time to 12.00 which seems hard for me at the current time.