Hilath's Home Page - Fitr Eid--a Time for Post-Ramazan Relief

Fitr Eid, a time for post-Ramazan relief

by Hilath Rasheed

New clothes, they emperors making way for a self-fulfilling rendezvous. Perfumes drifting in the post-Ramazan air, scores of beaming faces kneel in soul relaxing spiritual union; the early morning Sunnah prayers on the first day of Shawwaal. Welcome Fitr Eid.

Men, women, and children, old and young, unite in harmony in mosques, praying for serenity in the days to come and the Hereafter. Prayers also go for well-being of the deprived, and the indisposed. And for the not-so-fortunate Muslims suffering inexplicable horror unleashed by mighty and terror regimes. Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq. Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia. May God grant you patience until the time dawns when the human being is not persecuted for merely wanting the human dignity that mankind is rightfully entitled to.

Elsewhere, for the fortunate and the free in the Ummah, it is a time for joy, God-sanctioned bliss. And in this remote corner, Maldives rejoices another Eid, another new year and a new millennium, assured of protection, guidance, and progress under the banner of Islam. A celebration of Islam, a faith consolidated in the nation of islands for close to a millennium.

Cultures have changed, however. All things modernized and so have the festivities. Sultans and their traditions were the celebrations of the Eids then. Not now. Entertainment, more extravagant, color the contemporary happy mood of Eid. And this being 2000, Eid festivals are bound to be more cheerful with the coinciding of millennium celebrations.

But the Feast is always there. The great Feast. When women folk cross the olhigandu of their homes, intercepting men, total strangers, coming from noon prayers, inviting them to pray Salavaaiy in their homes, and taste the first offerings of the Feast, a variety of spicy dishes that almost spill out of the beautifully arranged dining table, the sufuraamathi.

The one thing that changed about the Feast is whether one gets to slaughter a chicken or buy a frozen one from the grocery across the street. Decades before, when ice kukulhu was not a common delicacy, the act of slaughtering itself was a ritual. An art.

Fathers struck cleanly with sickle-like blades, while their amused children stood in wonder, spectators to a hidden animal desire for killing that was long suppressed.

But mothers preferred frozen chicken, for surely it will spare their children the grisly sight of bloodletting, ensuring that childhood's innocence is preserved.

Apart from the sacrifice and the Feast, Eid is a time for binding family and friendly ties, reunions.

Not counting the thousands of cards that are exchanged, some out of love and some in love.

Then there are the colonies of youngsters marching towards a destination called Shopping. Shopping for new clothes, shopping for Eid hedhun.

Accompanying the shopping comes traffic jams.

The exodus out of Male is epic, too. Vacationers going to remote islands to take a dip in the cold ocean.

Lucky may be those who decided to stay in Male. For it surely will be pleasant to witness both the Eid and millennium celebrations, the joining of two festivities.

This article appeared in Haveeru Daily on 8 Jan 2000