My Eid

Our Eid Traditions

Once upon a time, we (the family) decided to make it an Eid tradition to have a breakfast feast early morning of the first day of Eid. This tradition lasted only once and failed to be repeated. So breakfast now constitutes of fitting mouthfuls of food and drink into our mouths in the midst of all the screaming, make-up, dressing and more.

One of the reasons we stopped our “tradition” is because we wake up late. Every year, my sisters and I threaten each other that we won’t help each other with make-up, dressing, hair, etc, etc unless supposed “late sleepers” wakes up early. Of course, threatening doesn’t work, and we all rush through things every time. We still follow the same tradition of wearing a brand new never-worn outfit for the first day of Eid.

Typical First Day of Eid

We’re supposed to wake up at 8, be done at 9, and start our rounds by 9:30. We’re forced to visit gazillion family members because many of them we see only twice a year. However, half of us wake up at 10, fight, argue, get dressed, discover that our outfits/hair/accessories do not look like what we intended them to be. Change hairdo, lessen makeup, and then give up trying.

If you think the girls in our family are psycho, you should see the guys! My brothers wake up later than we girls do, then fight over who gets to shave first, and who is hogging the bathroom longer (For some reason, before they built our house, my parents thought that two boys sharing a bathroom is much less drama than two girls sharing a bathroom. They were wrong.) After that, they complain that their dishdashas aren’t ready yet, or their qitra’s are not ironed to perfection, and start shouting at us girls that we’re making them late. Another tradition we managed to keep is that we visit our relatives altogether. My dad goes out on his own time, and my mom leaves at 8:00 am to prepare things at my grandma’s house because it’s an open house and she receives visitors until nighttime.

After going to all our relatives, congratulating them, making awkward conversation, being forced to eat different sweets and drink tea or coffee, our stomachs are bloated but grumbling for some real food. By that time its 2:00 pm, where have our lunch (or some may call a feast!) at my grandparent’s house. After lunch, we kick off our heels, and just lay down on the sofas breathing out a looooooooong sigh of relief.

The worst part of the day is over, and now we have the rest of the day to ourselves. We continue our day staying with our grandma and continuing to receive visitors. But at least by this time, we’re relaxed and staying in one place, not running around like headless chickens!

By nighttime, exhaustion kicks in, and I just flop down on the bed with a big smile on my face. Aaaaah my lovely bed!

So that’s it. That’s our Eid. That’s why I’m not fond of it.

Come to think of it. That’s what I love about Eid after all!

All the craziness is just part of our unique and dysfunctional family celebration! I can’t wait when we all get married and have kids and include them into this lovely, yet wild, tradition!

Note: I do realize that I didn’t write anything about eediyahs! This post is too long anyway. I’ll save it for another one.