A Qatari’s Eid

8 Dec, 2008  Socializing, Uncategorized

happy_3eid_by_hedzzation-copy

I thought that some people may find it interesting to know what goes on in Eid with my family.

The children wake up early in the morning. Excited. Playing. Waiting for the day to start. It’s Eid! The adults lay slumbering in their beds and wake up around 8-9 am (after waking up in the early morning for prayers and going to bed). After a hearty breakfast which consists of eggs, olives, honey, cream cheese, bread, and tea, it’s off for a quick shower and everyone puts on their brand new clothes that were specifically bought for Eid.

Eid is about celebration and about looking your best for your family as well.

It’s off to prayer before heading off to Baba Oad’s (Grand Father) house. All of the 50-60 cousins, 6 aunts and 6 uncles (as well as a huge amount of indirect relatives) arrive. The women go off to the sitting room, the men go off to their sitting room, and the children run around the house.

The general banter is usually along the lines of, “When are you getting married?”, “Why haven’t you been visiting more often?”, “Are you working hard?”, and “What have you been doing these days?”.

Children will come around and ask for Eidiya. This could be anything from 1 QR to 10 QR (more if you really like them ;) ) and then go out to ‘Ayid’ to the neighbours by singing songs and getting a few riyals in return. It’s our form of ‘caroling’.

When the children get back, they sit around and count their new found fortunes and plan what they’re going to buy.

Soon enough, it’s time for the feast. We all sit around the floor and dig into a selected slaughter. It sounds kind of cruel to some, but it’s an animal that is killed the Halal way (the most humane method possible where the animal feels no pain). Rice, drinks, lamb or sheep and chit chat.

After washing our hands, we then return the sitting rooms where we have a nice cup of tea (mint, red, or saffron), and relax.

The adults then slowly each return to their homes or go off to make their rounds to other close friends and relatives and wish them a prosperous future. Kil sina wa inta tayeb or kil am wa int ibkhair (every year and you are fine) is repeated from individual to individual.

What we did was head off to a coffee shop where myself and cousins chatted about memories and teased each other.

Eid. An Arabian ‘Christmas’. (or at least as important to us as Christmas.)

  • virginia

    sorry but I am missing the special EID prayers in the aricle.Arent all muslims supposed to assemble in the mosque for the special EID UL FITR Namaz which is offered in congregation?

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    Hi there,
    It’s meant to explain what typically happens in my family.

    4th paragraph mentions the prayer :)

  • Bleu

    Our family starts with morning prayers, we then have a short BREAKFAST, a symbol of the end of ramadhan, and move on to the Eid prayers. We pray and listen to the sermon. We then go visit our closest family member, starting with our mother and father. Aunts, Uncles, …

    We usually have lunch at 10 am or something… :P

    When I was a child, I used to make QR2000 or close to it… my grandparents loved to give me amounts like QR500. I saved most of that money and it helped me during the first years of my marriage.

    p.s. Eid Prayers this Friday will be at 5:33 am.

  • Abdulaziz1

    To the author of this article who I suppose is the organizer/editor of this website, some feedback:

    I applaud you on your efforts to bridge cultures and promote understanding between peoples, particularly in the very relevant context that your site provides, representing itself as a resource for people living in Qatar.

    I take issue however with your explanation of what ‘Eid il Fitir’ is, what it means to Qataris, how they conduct themselves in the celebration, and the analogies you present with Christian practice.

    Eid al Fitir is NOT our new year. The closest analogy would be Easter following lent, or the Christian version of Ramadan where people abstain from the the things they like to remind them of those less fortunate (notable difference being, in Ramadhan the fast is abstenance from any and all food and drink not just those things we like or enjoy, and is defined by a different time interval) …. This is the primary focus of Ramadan, and Eid al Fitir Celebrates the end of this period as Easter celebrates the end of Lent among other things.

    You say Kids wake up early in the morning and ‘adults lay slumbering’. This is simply false if you are talking about the majority of Qataris! While I am sure many adults lay slumbering, if you are talking about the eid tradition, then in fact it starts very early in the morning with the eid prayers coinciding with the sun rise call to prayer usually around 5 am. In fact, traditionally Eid has not started until after the prayer, and if the author had ever attended one of these prayers they may have noticed that people don’t actually say ‘Eid Mubarak’ when they first meet coming to the prayer area. Instead they wait until the after the prayers are concluded to say ‘Eid Mubarak’.

    Furthermore, your breakfast of cream cheese, olives etc. can hardly be called traditional or Qatari. We all have our preferences, but the items you list as breakfast are most certainly not Qatari. I would understand if you said ‘Balaleet’, or ‘Khabees’, or something like that.

    I read elsewhere on this site where you wrote that you are a Qatari with western exposure and as such are motivated by bridging cultures and making Qatar a better place to live for all. This is a noble cause and I congratulate you sincerely on your efforts…. I honestly don’t mean to mock you or anything like that. You must understand however, that if you don’t understand Qatari culture, then you are not qualified to speak about it. Adding to it the claim that you are Qatari makes things much worse. Because in the minds of many of the readers of your site, that makes what you are saying authentic and authoritative as a matter of course…. And while it doesn’t make much difference on issues like what we eat for breakfast, it does in the bigger context of what your saying. Your article does not need to be an analysis of Qatari social norms, but what facts you do present, you are obliged to present the correct ones in the correct light.

    I know that I have rambled. So I will close by saying that I was motivated to write this response because I am frustrated by constant misrepresentation of the Qatari society. Thats not to say that I agree with Qatari cultural norms, people who know me know this to be true… Still, I can speak of Qatari culture with authority as I am one of them, not only born and bred, but “aban 3an jad” as we say in arabic….. My name is Abdulaziz Khalid Al-Khater

  • http://www.iloveqatar.net Kei

    I’m currently out of the house but when i get home I’ll go ahead an post a reply. Just a quick comment though. I want to mention that it’s clear that this is just ‘one’ Qatari’s experience. Also mention that it’s just mine. Nowhere do I say that this is what all Qatari’s do.

    I also want to add that the purpose of my personal blog is to show that all Qatari’s are not all the same. We are not the Borg. We don’t all wear the same brands, necessarily drive the same cars, have the same habits, or in this case celebrate Eid exactly the same way.

  • amnesia

    I had to quickly reply to this. With all due respect, your comments are really based on a lot of assumption and it’s not one’s place to think that he/she is better than another person.  A lot of what you say is based on pure assumption… wallah ’3areeb.

    I write Mr. Q (it’s my personal blog) to share my own experiences. It’s ‘A’  Qatari’s View. Just one Qatari’s view. Inshallah I can encourage you to write your own and share with everyone else so that they have additional insight.
    Now, to answer a few questions/comments

    1) No where in my post did I say that Eid is like new year… I did compare it to Christmas, and that was meant in terms of importance. 

    2) In regards to kids waking up and adults slumbering. Perhaps I should have a comment in my blog post that says that my ‘experience’ starts from 7am? May I should have explained every detail to be as lucid as possible.

    3) How dare you comment that I haven’t attended the prayer (haram 3alayk wa ista7 3ala wayhik). 

    4) My breakfast is just that. My breakfast. You want to be super specific about a typical breakfast these days? Walla these days kids just eat cereal. Let alone balaleet.  Remember, this is ‘A’ Qataris view. 

    5) My background. Yes I’m a Qatari with western exposure, but how you understood that to mean anything else, I’m confused. Yes, I spent 5 years in the UK when at university, thats it. 

    Please don’t tell me that I’m not qualified to speak about Qatar. As a Qatari, I have the right to share my views and insight. If you’d like to start another blog and do the same, that will be great.

    Now if you feel my replies are harsh, put yourself in my shoes and empathize. 

    The internet is quite big, if you don’t agree with what I have to say, there are plenty other ways to go around it (I personally support you creating one to share your own experiences with the public).

    Il sara7a, I don’t know what to make of your comment. 

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  • Abdulaziz1

    amnesia, 

    I in no way meant to give offense, and upon reflection I understand why you took it that way… I sincerely apologize. I see that you were trying to express your particular practice rather than what maybe prevalent in Qatari society necessarily.

    I think you have misunderstood some of the things I said. I did not mean to claim that you are not Qatari in any way, nor that your western exposure made you any ‘less Qatari’ (I too spent 5 years abroad in University). In fact, I constantly argue against such bigotry since I don’t believe that any person’s worth should be tied to notions of social groupings of any kind. Furthermore, my comment regarding attending the prayer was definitely out of line, and I apologize profusely.

    I would ask you to consider however, that the mistake I made in thinking that you were writing about Qatari eid in general, rather than your eid specifically is one that many of your audience would make. Specially in the context of the site.

    I’m glad you responded the way you did, to what was a provocative and emotional comment. You showed remarkable restraint and responded rationally and respectfully. Much more so than the way I critiqued your blog post. Your replies were not harsh, instead it was my assessment of your article that was hasty and emotional. 

    Finally, I congratulate you again on your site and blog. You have clearly made a great effort that has produced an informative and useful website for many people. It is only through efforts of people like yourself that we promote ourselves and our society.

    Abdulaziz

  • amnesia

    Thank you very much though for your follow up and your apology, I really do appreciate it. And my reply was an emotional response.
    Inshallah one of these days we’ll be over to meet up over a coffee :)

    and also inshallah we’ll be able to see more websites about Qatar (especially by Qataris :) )

    Take care!

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