The beauty of Celebration

The Beauties of Celebrations

Although there are many Muslims living in the United States (for years), some of them still face difficulty inadapting new things from their new culture. In the beginning, all of us feel exposed to everything. Some of us face language problems and some face financial problems, but the hardest part is to celebrate religious events. The beauty of celebrations just seems like a dream in the United States. Ramadan and Eid are the two main religious events for Muslims, and the best way to enjoy them is to celebrate with traditions and with family. Ramadan is the holy month for Muslims in which Muslims fast from Fajar prayers (before sunrise) until Maghrib prayers (after sunset). After the completion of the holy month, Muslims celebrate Eid. In the United States, it seems nearly impossible to relish these holidays like we did in Pakistan.


The first problem I observed is that the Muslims hardly have a time for prayers. Prayers play an important role in every Muslim’s life and this gets extremely important during Ramadan. Muslims pray five times in a day. The first is Fajar that Muslims perform before sunrise. The second is Zuhr after sunrise. The Asr is after Zuhr before sunset and the Maghrib is when sunset. The last is Isha, at night before going to sleep. In Ramadan and on Eid people like to pray in mosques, but because of their jobs they are not able to match the exact time. It seems impossible to find a time for prayers even on regular days. In Pakistan, students get three days of vacation for Eid and one for last Friday of Ramadan. On the first day of Eid, we have Eid prayer for which people go to mosque, and women usually pray at home. In the US because of the busy schedule, people often do not get the time to eat something for the fast. They get too busy in their work, and are not able to recognize time.

Food plays important part in almost every culture and traditional foods make Eid and Ramadan more enjoyable. In Ramadan, we usually eat food like vegetables or chicken curry with rice or phulka (a kind of bread made by wheat flour) in the morning before sunrise to begin the fast and appetizers and fruit salad after sunset to end the fast. On Eid, we make different kind of traditional food like Biryani, Tikka(spicy roasted chicken) kebabs and desert. One of the deserts that we make on Eid is “Sheer Khurma”. This is because in Pakistan we usually serve sweets in celebrations or in moments of happiness. In the morning before going for Eid prayers in the mosque, we eat this desert because it is a Muslim’s belief that it is good to eat sweets before going for prayers of Eid. In Pakistan, my mother always tried to fulfill the demands of my siblings and me by making dishes of our choices. In the US, her life has been too busy as she sometimes does not even get the time for making a single dish. In Pakistan, we had enough time to cook food and enjoy it but in the US it is like a dream. We will always miss that taste.

Having relatives and friends around you is another important part that doubles your happiness. This is also a great part of Eid when we visit our relatives, greet them, and go out with friends. Children get extra love of their parents and grand parents during this time. On Eid all the younger kids, get Eidi (money or gifts) from their elders like aunts, parents, and grandparents. There is a huge gathering on Eid day. We enjoy the whole day with cousins and relatives. In Pakistan, I always went out with friends on the second day of Eid but in the US, I didn’t enjoy Eid as I did in Pakistan. Here I miss my relatives and friends with whom I enjoyed the celebrations and shared my feelings and happiness. Here I don’t have those elders from whom I will get my Eidi. I miss the love of my grandparents, aunts and all those friends and cousins with whom I spent my childhood.
Eid is a holiday we all wait for throughout the year. In September, we had our first Eid in the US but it was not same as Pakistan. Although we had a holiday, still we were not able to enjoy it fully. We had Sheer Khurma and we went to the mosque for Eid prayers, but we did not have our relatives and friends to enjoy the day with. I always felt like princess in Pakistan on Eid because of my friends and family. Holidays, prayers, and the food that your mother cooks on holidays are the things that you can only enjoy in your country without any worries, but all that changes once you come to a country that is completely different from your own culture.