Yalla Eid Sa'id

On this last day of Ramadan, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, my mom has already made the special Eid al-Fitr sweets. We make this kind of sweets only on this Eid.

Yesterday, I went with my sister to the clothing store to purchase new dresses, shoes and other things. The streets were overcrowded; you could hear the car horns and watch fireworks going off. Many children were dressed in colorful clothes and played in the streets. When we arrived at the clothing store, we were surprised by the amount of people. Can you imagine Gaza these days? This is a wonderful time and how I wish it to be repeated. The beautiful things in life – the days that we love – pass quickly and come to us only as visitors. Does Santa Claus come to you more than once in a year?

On the night before the Eid, lights flow out of Gaza, people don’t sleep for joy and anticipation of the wonderful morning of Eid. In the morning, the mosques start takbi’r (exclaiming “Allahu Akbar -means God is Greatest”). You can hear the happy takbi’r of people: ” ِAllahu Akbar…”

I spend these Eid days with my family in Gaza: we wake up early, eat fried fish as our tradition breakfast each morning, put on new clothes, and go to kiss our father’s forehead and mother as an expression of respect and filial piety – and as the role of our parents, they shall pray for us and give us some money. Relatives visit each other and exchange coins, which called in Arabic ‘Al-Eidiah’.

I like to spend the Eid days watching kids while they are having fun with each other, which brings me back to my childhood. I was a very quiet child but at the same time very noisy. After having the fried fish, I would go to my mother’s garden, water the plants and then pick some flowers to put among my papers in order to spread the smell of perfume between the sheets. Then I start writing my memoirs.

On the third and last day of the Eid, I rip up my memoirs and throw them into the sea. I think that the waves will read my words and love me, or maybe the fish will eat my stories!

Happy Eid, my family and my friends everywhere.

عيد سعيد لعائلتي و لكل أصدقائي أينما كانوا .

Eid Sa’id  🙂