Owais Mughal and Adil Najam
From all of us at All Things Pakistan (ATP; Pakistaniat.Com) we wish our regular readers, our contributors, and all passers-by Eid Mubarak. We wish you happiness, prosperity and all things good; now and forever.
Today, we want all of you to help us write this post for us.
Tell us, please, what Eid in Pakistan means to you by filling in the sentence that starts with “Eid is…â€
Here are a few picture – all from Pakistan in the last 3 days – that might help spur some ideas about what Eid is in Pakistan.
We are particularly interested in how you would complete this sentence in terms of the truly ‘Pakistani’ social norms that have evolved around the event.
You can complete the sentence as many times as you want; in ways that are humorous, thoughtful, philosophical, even cynical; but, please, not spiteful.
Here are a few ways in which we (the two of us and Bilal Zuberi) thought we might build the sentence when we first did a version to this post 3 years ago:
- Eid is… when the postman comes to your door and then refuses to give you the mail until ‘Eidee’ is given to him.
- Eid is… Not being able to eat much on Eid day because your body finally got adjusted to the roza routine!
- Eid is… going to Eid prayers in old chappals for fear of losing my new ones.
- Eid is… traffic jams on Chaand Raat and people pour out for last minute shopping… And sight-seeing!
- Eid is… taking my mother and sister to the darzi on a daily basis after the 20th roza.
- Eid is… when people hug each other and forget their differences; at least for a little while.
Aziz@
I think You just did the right !
-from a psychological point of view
-as well as from a religious point of view.
i wish i could describe the contrast in this picture of opulence and utter poverty:
http://tiny.cc/eid603
On a lighter note, I took my 2 year old son to the Eid prayers with me yesterday. When I went into Sajada, he climbed on my back and said “Lets go Horsee”. Now we do play this game a lot at home but I did not imagine in my wildest dreams that he would it to me during the prayers. I heard some folks chuckle around me and that is it. In the meantime, I was trying to think quickly if I should push him off me or just stay there? I just stayed there for a while and missed a couple of Rukus.
I believe that during prayers, its what you think spritually counts instead of what you do physically. What would you have done if you were in my place?
Eid is…When you forget all differences and ask for forgiveness from Allah as well as each other. For Allah will forgive your sins towards Allah but not towards mankind until you seek forgiveness from the ones you hurt.
Eid is…When a bunch of teenagers get on motor cycles and go to Tariq Road to hang out and watch people shop
Eid is…When your mother prepares a king’s feast but you have to go do grocery shopping
Eid is…When you hope to see as many relatives as possible to collect Eidee
Eid is…When you try to avoid your niece and nephews so you don’t have to give them Eidee ;)
Eid is…A day of Muslim brotherhood
Eid is…A day when I first met my wife…11 years ago ;)
Eid is NOT…A festival to fight over who saw the moon and who did no
Eid is NOT…for terrorist (and may I say non Muslims) to go and blast off shopping malls
Eid Mubarak to all!
Missing the sevaiyan, lights and festivities from the festival. Especially in the galis and kuchas of old Delhi, where my college was located and where I spent four years of my life. I miss walking to Karim’s in the middle of the night during Ramzan for a midnight meal, with the streets lit up like it was mid-day. I miss seeing the spectacle of a hundred thousand people (perhaps an exaggeration but not by much) clad in their best clothes streaming out of Jama Masjid after Eid prayers and hugging each other. Above all, I miss the spirit that surrounds this festival.