When travel writer Marguerite McCurtain was in Yemen some years ago, she celebrated the festival of Eid with new friends…
Eid al-Fitr, the three-day celebration which marks the end of Ramadan, is expected to start in the evening of April 9, at the rising of the new moon. That day will also mark the first day of the Islamic month Shawwal. When travel writer Marguerite McCurtain was in Yemen some years ago, she celebrated the festival with new friends…
The atmosphere was one of ease and good humour. The holy month of Ramadan was over and on the next day I was invited, with my four friends, by one of the women who spoke English, to a women’s party to celebrate the Festival of Eid. We arrived by taxi at the address that she had given us, to find her waiting with a woman she introduced as her daughter. Both were shrouded from head to toe in black.
They greeted each other very warmly with hugs and kisses. Greeting us was a more elaborate ritual. When they did so they kissed the back of their right hands, extended them to within a fraction of our lips without touching them and then returned their hands to their own lips again. Then they cupped both of our hands in both of theirs and said “” – “welcome” in Arabic.
As the afternoon wore on, light filtered in through the fan-shaped stained glass qamaria window, casting the entire room into ever-deepening rainbow hues. As the sun set, we could hear the voices of the muezzin in the mosques ring out the first call to prayer. The women stood up and this time embraced us as they did each other. They put on their coats and veils and gloves and walked into the courtyard where taxis were waiting to take them home.
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