Eid Mubarak!
A woman decorates her hands with henna for Eid.
Eid aladha (عيد الأضحى), or “celebration of sacrifice”, is one of the two celebrations Muslims worldwide celebrate each year. Thisfestival falls on the 10th day of the lunar month of Zul-Hijja and is the concluding act of the pilgrimage to Makkah. In commemoration of Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, and the subsequent sparing of his son by God, sheep, goats, or camels are offered to God. One-third of the meat is taken by the person who sacrifices; one-third is given to relatives; and one-third is given to the poor.
Unless they have a large number of their relatives living where they live, Muslim immigrants in the West usually find it difficult to feel the joy and the warmth of Eid, simply because celebrating Eid revolves mainly around extended family gatherings, visits, and providing for the vulnerable amongst relatives. Many try to compensate the lack of familial environment by calling relatives back home to say, “ عيد مباركEid Mubarak”, or Blessed Eid, but obviously such short telephone calls will never generate the feelings of being surrounded by beloved ones.
The common schedule of Muslim immigrants in the West includes taking the day off work or school, going to the Eid prayer in mosques, going to a farm to sacrifice an animal (if it is possible for them to do so; if not then whatever they are capable of doing is acceptable), taking kids to toy stores and entertainment places, calling relatives back home, and sending some money back home for needy family members to enjoy Eid. If the mother doesn’t work outside her house, she would make the “Eid cookies”, which are very famous in Muslim societies. Otherwise, ready-made cookies would be bought.Nahla Al-Huraibi has been working at CRIS for a little over a year and works the Employment Program to help skilled professionals find employment and develop long term goals to get back into their fields. Nahla has a PhD from The Ohio State University in Sociology and is always putting her degree to good use as she walks through the acculturation process with her clients.