"A Tiny, Wonderful Rebellion Against the Tyranny of Time Has Begun"

June 28, 2023 7:19 AM

Eid al-Adha (NYTimes gift link) Writer, Romaissaa Benzizoune, describes celebrating the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, which has begun.

"Muslim holidays fall on a different spot on the Gregorian calendar every year.

This makes Eid al-Adha difficult to plan for. But the spontaneity can also make celebrating it feel a little giddy, in the same way that taking a random personal day or heading out the door with no clear destination can."

posted by AnyUsernameWillDo (10 comments total)

This Eid, Eid ul Adha, is significantly easier to plan for than Eid ul Fitr which is the day after Ramadan ends. Eid ul Adha falls on the 10th of the lunar month so you get 10 days' notice. Eid ul Fitr is the first day of a new month so depends on the sighting of the new moon. Especially in places where moonsighting is done the old way (by climbing up a tower and squinting), you might not know till late the night before if the next day will be a final fast or a holiday.

Personally I like how Muslim holidays process backwards through the seasons, as it gives a particular flavour to memories of Eid. In my childhood Eid fell in the hottest part of the year, and now does so again, after having moved through the entire Gregorian calendar, and it brings back memories of those holidays very vividly. In a few more years I'll be remembering the winter Eids of my early adulthood. My non-Muslim in-laws find it hard to get their heads around not having a season to associate with a holiday.
posted by tavegyl at 7:46 AM on June 28, 2023 [21 favorites]

Web archive worked for me, and its a lovely way to think about lunar holidays.
posted by zenon at 9:02 AM on June 28, 2023

tavegyl: thanks for sharing that…a really lovely & unique way to reminisce on the passage of time & one’s life.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 9:11 AM on June 28, 2023

The neighbourhood here is jumping because of Eid ul Adha. The street has been parked up all day, and families have been going into the religious centre solidly since mid-morning.

Easter's the only movable feast still in the European tradition. And it's not very movable, really. I guess it would be hard to have observance based on lunar sighting where I'm from (Scotland), because the moon is something one is only vaguely aware of in the gloom of winter.
posted by scruss at 9:59 AM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

It really snuck up on me this year because my mom is out of town and she'd usually be the one to make plans for it. I got an email on Friday about donating Qurbani which is when it dawned on me that Eid is coming up. Can't skip work entirely but it'll be a shorter day and my spouse and kids are too busy with the last few days of school to want to take the day off either but hopefully we'll be able to meet up with people over the weekend. Eid ul Adha has always been the less exciting Eid for me because we used to not get as much Eidi (money or gifts given by adults to kids), there was no month of fasting leading up to it, and here in Canada we didn't actually keep a cow or sheep for a while beforehand to be slaughtered. It's even less exciting for me now because I've stopped eating meat. I have vivid memories of once visiting Pakistan when I was a kid and it happened to be Eid and everyone had cows and on Eid itself the streets were red with blood and we all ate really well that evening.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:43 AM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

And in case anyone's wondering, me not eating meat doesn't have anything to do with that visit to Pakistan. Probably the opposite, as in if I could I might now keep the cow and slaughter it on Eid as an annual "you die so I can live" kind of thing and then not eat meat for the rest of the year, as opposed to just paying a relief organization to slaughter animals and send the meat to people in need around the world.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:29 PM on June 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Jinx! My 20-something daughter is in the middle of a summer cooking course in small town in the Irish midlands. Most of the punters are Ukrainian refugees. It gives them an excuse to get out of their sad accommodation and meet folks, learn some (more) English and get some new ways of cooking. They only have kettle and microwave cooking facilities in their hostel so getting access to sharp knives, mixing bowls,catering ranges and ovens lights up their eyes. Turns out that one of the two men in the course is a Ukrainian Muslim, and his wife sent him to class with a plate of "baklava" to share for the holiday today. So that was the first time I found out a) about Eid-al-Adha b) that >5% of Ukrainians follow The Prophet.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:02 PM on June 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

My neighbour just dropped off a huge sack of Eid treats. She is an amazing cook, and we will not be short of food for a while.
posted by scruss at 2:50 PM on June 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

Heading to work this morning, I saw a couple Muslim families at the train station, dressed in what I can only call finery, with one couple's little son doing that "look how dressed up I am and how grown up that makes me" strut that only kids under five can manage when wearing their holiday clothes.

It's a nice little moment, right at the beginning of dreary commute, knowing that for some, today is a day of celebration.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:00 PM on June 28, 2023 [7 favorites]

Tomorrow I'm headed to a lovely Eid celebration on a permaculture farm here near Granada, God willing. I'm blessed to have the opportunity to connect with fellow Muslims here in Spanish, English, and what little I can manage in Arabic. It's a wonderful place to have made my home, thank you God.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 12:31 AM on June 30, 2023 [2 favorites]