EID in Bangladesh

A short article about how the Banglai people celebrate Eid.

After thirty days of fasting, the day all Muslims look forward to the most has finally arrived.
Eid, for those who don't know, is the annual Muslim holiday celebrated all across the Arabic world. Its even celebrated in Muslim communities in western and eastern non-Muslim countries. Some of you might have even attended the celebrations there. It comes two times a year, once after Ramadan and another comes a few months later when animals are sacrificed.
Don't worry,this Eid isn't the one where we kill livestock for god. I promise you there will be no bloodshed and dead animal carcasses laying around in this article. Now where was I...Ah! Eid!
Now Eid is like Christmas to us except we don't exchange gifts and drink eggnog or sing happy sweat carols( thank god!).
In Bangladesh, Eid is the time of the year when youngsters become richer than their parents. It is that time of year when a Bangale woman can go to the parlor to get a ridiculously priced beauty treatment without their husbands nagging them. It is the time of year when men can eat as much food as they want and sleep like a pig afterwards. It is the time of the year when people are allowed to go crazy on the streets without the police running after them.
Eid, in Bangladesh, starts out with an early morning bath, and by morning I mean at the crack of dawn. Thousands of men and some women travel to the Eid ga mat( prayer field) or mosque to pray during which time the women cook breakfast cum lunch for the family in epic proportion's. If you live here, you know what I mean. Trust me to interrupt a bangalee women in the kitchen on Eid for something so trifle as toilet paper can get you battered with an assortment of choice words and possibly head injury from a rolling pin.
After the prayers are done, the men hug each other, it doesn't matter if they know each other because its Eid and its not awkward. By that time every house in Dhaka ( capital of Bangladesh) smells of Kheer(rice pudding), shamaie(I dont know what its english counterpart is) chotpoti( a spicy grain mixture), Poloao(polished rice), chicken curry cooked in various ways and spicy meat dishes which will make your mouth water.
Once the men return from prayer, they settle down to eat while the women wash themselves and get dressed up in their newly bought clothes. If you come to Dhaka on Eid day I promise you will not see a single a women who isn't dressed up in the latest fashion. If you ask a woman how much their new Pakistani or Indian style anarkali dress costs, the price will make you faint.
Unlike the other Muslim countries, women in Bangladesh aren't obliged to cover themselves. Women are the colour of Eid in Dhaka. When you head down to the streets all you'll see are women in beautifully embroidered sarees and salwar kameese singing and dancing and showing off their mehndi(leaves which we use to tattoo our hands).
After everyone is done eating and emptying their wallets to son, daughter, nephew, niece, grandson and granddaughter, they go out join the Eid festivities set up outside by random groups of people. No one buys a ticket on Eid to go to a concert or to dance to traditional bawl(they're native classical musicians who sing songs sung mostly in villages) or to watch adorable young boys and girls spin around in circles on stage. There's music, there's dancing, there's freely given away money, face paint, fire works and lots and lots of food.
By sunset your so exhausted from all the fun, that you want nothing more than to sit down and watch the newest bangla special Eid soap opera. How I met your mother be damned!

So that's it. Its not easy to describe Eid in words. You have to experience it!

Reviews

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Alex! What have you written😠 ok I was joking dear😀 reading this makes me feel you've surely travelled my beautiful country Bangladesh. It's like you've opened womens all brownie points during Eid. Though there were some spelling mistakes you did incredible!
Like it's bengali, shamai etc.😊