Friday, December 21, 2007

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.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

you think waking up at 10 is late @@ Heheh! We wake up at around 1(ish) because we all decided to skip breakfast in our family & thank god we don't do that much visiting or at least my parents don't drag us :P


thank god for having my own bathroon amen!

NewQ8 Bride said...

u r totaly right

i stopped feeling the Aid five years ago , the year i started to work , walah there is nothing fun about 3eed exept that wearing new outfits what i am still doing wanasa

walah this 3eed is the worset for me

Anonymous said...

yaaay thkrteene yom kna gubl kelna 9'3aar ana w 5waane..el 3id was 'something'.. alas now the eid is just waiting expecting eidya from the parents ONLY and saying eidkm embarrak to whoever u see..i miss the old eid days. now either everyone is msafreen or us msafreen or chale'.. 5a9tann 3id el a'67a.

Anonymous said...

Yeah thats almost exactly the way I have (actually used to have) 3eed with my fammily, I mean if its becoming a drag then why do we have to bullshit it and just do it anyways even though we are not enjoying it. So starting from about 3 years ago I started Tisikkib 3al mashee, aroo7 a3ayid 3ala my grandfathers house and my first family relatives, then i as7ab 3aleehom seefon walla waladry 3anhom :p
Im not a blogger btw i came to you from N's blog. but anyways your blog was 7adda comical and i could relate so i had to comment :)

Anonymous said...

Eid is starting to get very overrated, especially Eid Elath7a. It's too close to Eid Elfe6r.. but what can we do eh?

Marzouq said...

I want 3eedeeeyah! lol!

I'm lucky that I'm a guy and I prepare the dishdasha and qitra the night before so all together its a 15 minute process and I am out the door at 9:00am enjoying the empty roads of Kuwait.. also I give the 3eedyahs now, I haven't gotten a 3eedeyah in a long time! lol

Yara said...

Wow thats fun .. we used to do this before in my family but not anymore :( Its sad really.. bs i love it now since im married and do visit ppl with my husband and dress in new clothes and all that i love it i really feel its eid.. not like before sleep till noon and the least thing to do was send eid sms's

shoosha said...

Hahaha the rushness of eid is the funniest :P ana kilhum yerkeboon il sayara ooo they honk the horns 3ashan a6al3 ooo ana 7athrety still brushing my teeth! :P
Why can't the zwara's be at night!! wayed a7la!!

eshda3wa said...

hatha a7la shay shay about 3eed!!

i love it and i miss it!!

This Lady said...

chika: lucky u ;)

new bride: 3eed is still fun, but u have to beleive in it :p Like Santa! hehehe

pink: wallah i7na lail7een chithy il7imdillah mataghayar 3alaina shay.

mohammad: welcome, and thank u so much for ur wonderful comment :))

abdvllah: Eid is a religious holiday so we musn't forget it! But yeah i do prefer Eid al Fitr..

marzouq: check out my next post :pP tes9la7lik.

yara: yallah start the tradition again with ur family!

loya: ee wallah it should be at night! hehehe but then again, its fun this way too..

eshda3wa: mabuga shay witrideen :pP

WendyB said...

LOL! Family holidays are always difficult.