on saturday is the second major muslim festival of eid-ul adha, a commemoration of the life of abraham. it also ties in with the hajj (pilgrimage to makkah, saudi arabia). it's a quieter celebration compared to eid-ul fitr which commemorates the end of ramadan. it's also a festival that is more about sharing.
as it happens, i have 4 things to be at on saturday, and have managed to get out of 2 of them, may not be able to avoid the 3rd and will most likely go to the 4th, which is to hear valerie browning talk about the plight of the afar people of africa. this is one of the joys of being a minority and having your festival days not recognised by the majority of the country. sometimes i wonder what it would be like to have the whole country celebrating with us. it's a feeling i miss, because i don't really identify with christmas so don't really feel a part of it. besides which, i find the whole commercial hype around that celebration to be quite frustrating.
still, i'm looking forward to a day set aside for friends and family. eid mubarak to you all.
2 comments:
Have you ever read Multicultural Citizenship by Will Kymlicka (Canadian political theorist). He makes much the same point i.e. that many English-speaking (and other European-language speaking?) countries base their social organisation around Christianity, even when they are (allegedly) secular countries with separation of church and state. So we get public holidays for Christmas and Good Friday, and Sundays off, and people think this is just 'normal'.
well, to be fair, most countries with muslim majorities have their celebrations around eid festivals, and their weekend is friday. in that regard, india is quite good as it has annual holidays for muslim, hindu & christian festivals.
most non-religious holidays tend to relate to nationalism, which doesn't sit well with me cos they mostly consist of military displays & (metaphorical) chest-thumping. for nz, that usually happens on anzac day, and is not so much a display of military might (cos we don't have that much might to display!).
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