The Grinch Who Tried to Steal Eid Day... (and failed!)

I'm back to life, I think.
This cold has been eating me alive. Was dead in bed for a few days, but that's all that I could afford since I must return to field work and look alive from Wednesday to Sunday. Still not feeling 100%, but I have to continue working to make a living, you see. Gah, am hating to be a responsible adult. You see, children literally don't care if they have to be at school or not. If they don't want to go to school, they just don't go, or they pretended that they're going to school but they went to a game arcade instead, or to a park.

Anyways... Eid Al-Fitr day has come and gone. It was a very special day. For Muslims in Japan, the Eid day was on Tuesday, Oct 24. Much to my disappointment, the morning was somber and cold, it was raining very hard and windy.
After much contemplation, taking into account that if I went to the Indonesian mosque in Meguro, I would only get sicker - I swayed the pendulum to the Turkish mosque in Yoyogi Uehara. It is only a 10 minute cab ride away.

The Eid prayers was planned to start around 8:30 AM. I went into the mosque around 8:15 AM. Even though I've been to that mosque many times before, the decoration never fails to stun me. It's very ornate with the beautiful Koran verses calligraphy, painted on the wall, carved to the chandelier. The rugs are authentic Persian, everything is very tastefully done, absolutely stunning.






There were not that many people yet in the ladies area. I sat down next to a nice Thai lady by the corner. After saluting each other "Assalammu'alaykum and Eid mubarak!" we got into chatting.
To accommodate the many working people attending the prayer, the order of the mass was reversed. The khutba (sermon) first and then the 2 raka'at Eid shalat (prayer). This way, people could go to work immediately after the shalat finished.

One thing that was very special about going to the Turkish mosque was the many nationalities who show up for the prayers. Taking this into account, the mosque clerics thought of a solution that would be helpful for everyone: multilingual sermons! First the English version started, followed by the Japanese version and finally the Turkish version. It was actually quite amusing as the Imam who gave the sermon was clearly a non-native English speaker. I could hardly understand what he was saying, but when he started speaking in Japanese, you could kind of gathered the essence of his speech. When he switched completely to Turkish, that was when the fun started. He sounded very animated about everything, his tone went up and down and all over the place. Not understanding a word of Turkish, I had no idea what he was saying, but purely treated his 3rd sermon as amusement. hehe.

Everything wrapped in just 1 hour. The ladies at the ladies chamber on the 2nd floor started silaturahiim, where everybody greeted each other "Eid mubarak!" (literal translation: "Happy Eid!") You went around the room, you held each other's palms and kissed each other's cheeks twice or three times, and then you embraced. It gave you a very warm feeling that even though we don't know anything about each other, we are enjoying the same thing - sisterhood.

I went home and collapsed in bed for another hour. Giving it time for the clock to turn 11, so I could call Indonesia where it would be 9 AM and wish everybody "Happy Eat day!!!"
The entire day turned out to be a very special day full of love and laughters and above all: EATING! Friends and families came and enjoyed the feast all day and night.

The tradition stands. I don't care that I'm as sick as a dog, but I could not, would not, should not let the Grinch steal my Eid. Even if that meant I had to roll into the kitchen.
Thanks so much, everyone, especially Odaiko Div, #Q, Nin2 and Chopping R - you have made my struggle in the kitchen significantly lighter.
For the others... thanks so much for coming and celebrating this special day with us. After all, that is what the Eid Al-Fitr is all about: celebrating the victory over your own worldly wants and needs for 30 days, filled with love and forgiveness, while feasting on some delicious food.

Until next year!