The holiday began for government offices on January 20, when most city dwellers started leaving the city for outlying villages and towns in order to celebrate with their near and dear ones the Eid-ul-Azha, one of Islam's greatest religious festivals. An estimated four million people left the capital over the last three days.

The government extended the holiday by one extra day as Friday, the weekly holiday, fell during the three-day Eid vacation. However, newspaper offices observed three days of vacation.

The Eid festivities, coupled with the weather, helped slow down the otherwise chaotic pace of life in the capital. Chilly weather forced many city dwellers to remain indoors, where they watched special Eid programmes on television while their children spent their days at the park or the zoo.

The city's notorious traffic was much less chaotic in the last few days, with fewer pedestrians, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, minibuses and other vehicles visible on the streets. Normally crammed buses even had seats for passengers.

The capital still looked deserted yesterday as most shops and business centres kept their shutters down.

Attendance was very thin yesterday at the Secretariat, the headquarters of ministries and offices of the Republic, with most of the ministers absent on the first day of office opening. Presence in other government offices in the capital was also thin.

Sources said only a few staff members turned up and stayed in their offices. Those who did were seen exchanging Eid greetings and sharing stories about their sacrificial animals and their Eid celebrations.

Secretariat sources said that virtually no business was conducted in the offices, since a good number of officers and employees are on additional leave to spend more time at the village homes of their families, "as they find 4-days of holiday not enough".

Rooms of the ministers and secretaries at the Bangladesh Secretariat were opened for all to exchange Eid greetings with officials and staff. Ministers and secretaries meanwhile passed a "very relaxed" day yesterday.

In Motijheel, the country's business hub, business resumed at all insurance companies, semi-government offices, autonomous bodies, multinational companies and the offices of local business complexes, although staff seemed too inadequate to conduct business as usual.