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Eid: Change of Time, Change of Celebrations…

Tabassum Mokhduma

WHEN I was a little girl of four or five, Eid meant nothing more than buying new clothes and visiting relatives, and more importantly, competing with my elder brother in terms of the number of clothes we got in Eid. Well, my brother was never really in those competition but I was and for that all blame should go to my mother who always used to sew new clothes for me with beautiful designs! Well, one of my mother's favourite hobbies is creating outfits for her close ones with different designs and she still does this even if she remains busy with some other works. So she herself made beautiful kameezes, skirts, frocks, sarees and sometimes punjabis for every possible members of the family though she never professionally learned designing. Eid at that time was all about giving Eid cards and gifts to all - starting from the elders to the youngest members of the family and of course to all those people who worked round the clock to take care of us, changing clothes in every possible hour, having my favourite dishes and doing all sort of stuffs which could bring trouble to the lives of the elders.

But one thing I really never liked about Eid was that my mother hardly took me along with her for shopping while my friends used to buy their clothes along with their parents. She never really liked the idea of taking the kids for shopping more often and so she used to tell that good kids should not go to shopping malls as they might get lost! Well, my mother had a valid reason of course.

Then when I was in primary school, Eid was actually meant for my younger sister! Really, as she was the youngest one amongst us three, it always seemed that she is getting all the attentions! And I used to think that had I was the youngest, I would have got the share of the attentions she was getting!

Every year, every Eid was somehow really special. And Eid started to become more special for me when I grew up and started my high school. Because from this time my mother started to take me for shopping! During my high school and college days Eid was the festival for which I used to wait all year round. Because it was that time of the year which always brought the real magic box for me which had stored fun, happiness, festivity in it.

As I come from a joint family, Eid meant the time when I can spend enough time with my cousins doing literally nothing. It was all about the endless 'adda' with my cousins and making the lives of everyone around in my village a real hell! We always used to spend the Eid vacation in my paternal village and trust me, after reaching the village, I always felt like getting the desired freedom I longed for. As in village there were more cordial people (I do not want to hurt the people in town, but I do not know why I felt that way), less crowd and even lesser vehicles, my parents had less reason to worry about our security. It was fun to meet relatives, going to their places and hosting them as well, arranging picnic in our backyards and sometimes in our farmhouse, roaming around the hill sides and sometimes short river cruise and even visiting relatives by going to another villages! Then again after coming back to town, meeting other relatives and friends, going over to my maternal grandma, aunt and uncles' place were the must do thing. To be honest, Eid had it all.

But things started to change a lot since I started my undergrad. Well, it was supposed to be changed for sure. After all, more responsibilities, more workloads and more assignments started to shoulder on me as well as on my other cousins and as a result Eid started to be more like a long awaited commercial break when I can actually have enough rests with no deadlines to meet. While in school and college, Eid was all about get-togethers and having fun, but it all changed totally when I started my university. Now every moment I have to fight for that time when I can stay for some more days in my village with my grandma, spend some more time in the backyard of my village home, enjoy every moment of Eid. Every other moment I keep thinking if the Eid vacation would have a bit longer than I may enjoy a bit more. But no one can change the truth either.

But I am happy that some things still remained the same. My mother still manages to give us clothes which she herself designs and sews; we still go to the village to celebrate Eid with all the aunts, uncles and cousins; we all exchange gifts and get the opportunities to meet all those aged relatives who still loves to meet us. And this year, when another Eid is just around the corner, once again I am pondering whether I can enjoy the vacations like my school and college days, or just end up simply by meeting everyone hurriedly and than again coming back to my regular monotonous life!

But nonetheless, Eid is always special and will remain special. After all, the happiness on my grandma's face, bright smile of the housekeepers when they get their Eid outfits and 'Eidees' from our family, never ending chatting with everyone around and so on - all are the long awaited precious gifts which every year Eid brings. And because of all these things, I am hopeful as usual and looking forward to make the best out of this Eid. Eid Mubarak!

How to say Eid Mubarak in many languages

Spanish
Mubarak, de propiedad

Swedish
ägda Mubarak

Romanian
Mubarak aflate în proprietatea

Portuguese
Mubarak propriedade

Malay
Selamat Hari Raya

Norwegian
Eid Mubarak

Italian
Proprietà Mubarak

German
Besitz Mubarak

French
Occasion Moubarak

Finnish
omistama Mubarakiin
Dutch
eigendom Mubarak

Danish
ejet Mubarak

Czech
vlastnictví Mubarak

Source : Internet