Eid al-Adha: THE BIG EID

     This is going to be a short entry because the progression of events of this Eid were nearly the exact same as the one in September. The only difference was this one did not start at night and the first night did not begin with giving a portion of one’s yearly salary to charity. This Eid is generally referred to as the big Eid because it is seen to be more important then the first one. The first Eid’ s full name is Eid al-Fitr, which means celebration of breaking fast and its pretty self-explanatory as to the purpose of the holiday. It celebrates the end of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. Eid al-Adha translates into Celebration of Sacrifice. It celebrates the prophet Abraham, a prophet in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, willing to carry out God’s will and sacrifice his own son, Ishmael. According to the stories, at the last second God said that he only wanted to see if they were truly devout and said that Abraham could sacrifice a bull rather then his son. This is why every Eid al-Adha a bull is sacrificed on the second day. As far as the ritual goes it is similar. Day one people go from house to house eating and epically large breakfast, day 2 the bull gets slaughtered and family time continues and day 3 there is a big family lunch and, for my home stay family, that was the end of it. This is, however, an interesting time of the year for the Arab world. It is the time of the year where many Arabs go on Haj, which is the holy pilgrimage to Mecca and then, walking in the footsteps of Mohamed, take the journey, by foot, from Mecca to Medina. For, Oman specifically it is even more of a busy time because not only is it Haj and Eid but it is also the Sultan’s birthday which is National Day. This year is the 40^th anniversairy of the country’s “rebirth” and big celebrations are ensuing The actual celebration has been moved to early December so the Queen of England could come, as well as Hillary Clinton, and they will be taking place the final three days I am here. The rest of my time here will be filled with research and then National Day celebrations however, there will still be a couple more entries to come.