Traditions

6:30 a.m.. Wake up, pray Fajr (early morning prayer), climb back into bed.
Doze off and start dreaming again.
Hear mom rushing in, moving here and there in a frenzy and in your sleep, catch her saying things like:

"Wake up!" ....
"...uff you're still asleep"....
"...its late...did you pray???
Are you listening to me?".....
"breakfast"...."hurry!!!"....
"....Eid"

wait...what was that??? OH Sh!* ...it is EID!!! Rush out of bed. Meet the family for breakfast. Shower. Get dressed. Go to the mosque for prayer. Listen to the Imam's lecture. Pray in the congregation. Yay prayer's done, time to meet and greet.

Hug*. "Eid Mubarak" Hug. "Happy Eid!!"Hug. "So nice to see you!!" Hug x 3. Hug again. Hug as many people around you as you can. Sigh, even the lady you usually run away from because she's been eye-ing you for her son. Fine, fine she's forgiven for the day. Pry yourself away when you realize she's held the hug for too long. Make some excuse..."Umm my friend is calling...I have to go meet her. She's right there, see!" *Point to any random girl*

Back away slowly, all the while praying she doesn't follow you to meet your friend (cause even though she eyes you, don't feel special, any single girl is a potential target...for the son of course). Whew, safe.

Resume the hug-fest.

OO food!! Oh crap, such a huge crowd around the food. Maybe I can just make my way through. "Excuse me... Pardon me... Coming through..."

Oh, I've moved just an inch. Fine, fine I give up!

Spend the rest of the time, watching people flock to the snack table, dive in like birds, and then just as quickly resume their mingling, leaving just a few crumbs behind...and maybe a particle of dust floating in the air.

Spend another half hour or so like this. Quite amusing.

Meet up with the family again outside the mosque. Spend the rest of the day with the extended, extended family. When I say extended, I mean extended (stretch limo style). Eat. Try to make conversation over a gajillion other conversations. Eat some more.

Thank Allah for the big, loud family you have. Begrudge the fact that you have to go to work tomorrow.

All in all, quite a nice Eid day in AL's family. =)

Happy Eid to all our Muslim followers!!

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*Hugging is the official greeting for Eid and saying "Happy Eid" or "Eid Mubarak." But I thought I should mention, there's no cross-mingling among the sexes, so when I say hug I mean ladies/girls hugging among themselves and likewise for the men. If we were to hug any men it would be of the family: father, grandfather, brother, husband, uncles and the like.