Desert Pundit

Confessions of an Eid hater!

I never really liked the Eid, while it implied couple of days off and the chance to go out and have some fun, the societal obligation that came bundled with that made the two Eids two holidays to loath for me.

Even as a kid, I was rather ambivalent about it, while it meant acquiring a new set of cloths (the obligatory Eid costume), and a feast of food and sweets to last a century, the constant flood of people coming in to greet and the obligatory return visit ruined the chance of the family spending a quiet quality time together.

Then there are our own family Eid’s tradition, the 6 am visit to the martyrs cemetery on the first day, the constant traveling (for hours) to visit rather unpleasant relatives that we avoid like the plague for the rest of the year. Even collecting the small change that kids get (Eidieh) was not really big thing for me (and my mom usually confiscated that later anyway!)

I know that many people find the chance to reconnect with the relatives and the extended family pleasant reminder of belonging to a bigger entity than you small nuclear family, and I agree if it happens in small doses, and if you actually get a chance to have a meaningful conversation with anybody. Regretfully, at Eid, you only get the downside, there are far too many people around and the visits are usually quite short, so people travel vast distances to come drink their coffee, eat their sweet and then move on to the next chore! Absolute madness!

One of the reasons of me “turning against” the Eid is that I have a large extended family, which means that you waste the three days of Eid in order to be able to visit everyone. I mean really large extended family, I have 11 uncles and aunts on my mother’s side, and 7 on my father’s side, I do have a grand total of over 107 first cousins. Just imagine that when we visit my grandmothers on the Eid, there are usually over 20 children running amok at the same time, it drive me nuts.

I know that I am not alone, a growing wave of people in my age group (early 30s) are deciding each year that they’d rather travel abroad than face all the obligations of the Eid. I am an extreme case only in the sense in that I wear my Eid loathing on my sleeve.

Living here in Dubai, the Eid for me is just another Friday, a time to disconnect and spend time at home reading or watching TV, I make couple of phone calls, but that is about it, I totally relax and let my hair down (this is an inside joke!)

Now that I stated my manifesto against the Eid, I must admit that I miss the date Mamoul that my mom, aunts, and grandmother are so good at, but I think that the sacrifice is worth it.!

posted by Desert Pundit @ 7:00 AM