This is Eid for Me.

I never really grasped the meaning of Eid as a child. I remember in my earlier years, when we were in our old house in Al Hamriya area, I would walk around with my brother and sister to our neighbors and ask for ‘Eediyah’ which is the money given on Eid.

Then I remember when we moved to our new house, and how I missed asking for Eediyah. I’d spend the Eid wishing we were still at the old neighborhood. Then I realized that spending the day at our new house all dressed up with new clothes, new shoes, and new everything basically, was not so bad. I decided that that was Eid for me.

Then I remember when I got into my teenage years, I started to complain about everything and think that the whole world is going in the wrong direction and has a huge conspiracy against me. That included hating the way I looked on Eid, not liking the dress I wore or the Henna painted on my hands, or not being able to get a new haircut. That was Eid for me: having a ‘new look’ and looking beautiful, if that was not fulfilled, that wasn’t Eid.

Then I grew out of it. I realized that Eid was still not so bad if I didn’t have the exact look I had in my head. Eid was about hanging around in the house, receiving guests, looking good, spending time with family and getting in touch with old friends. That was Eid for me.

But then things changed. The faces of the guests changed. Some disappeared and some new faces arrived. Old friends got married or moved away and some just were not friends anymore. My lifestyle changed. My surroundings changed. Eid had a different taste. I started to complain about how Eid is tasteless. I was afraid to accept all these changes. But I did accept them eventually, just like I accepted the changes in the previous periods of my life.

Eid had a new deeper meaning. Eid had the sweetest taste: family.

Eid is a reminder of all the blessings and all the warm feelings a person could feel in such a cold world of digital letters, where a word comes from a person’s hand rather than a person’s heart. Eid could take all kinds of tastes and all kinds of shapes, not every Eid would be as wonderful as the previous one or as bad as the one we once had. We could have both types of Eid in one Eid. Everything could happen.

Eid is still a changing concept for me, with the unchanging content of love. Family is what nurtures love, what raises it, what makes a person believe in living in a better place.

Thank you, my parents, my brothers, and my sisters, for giving me that family. And I pray with all my heart, that this would never change, that this love only grows stronger.


Today, this is Eid for me.

Have a great Eid everyone!

- Sana H.