Madeeha K. looks forward to Eid this year, like every year. Here she shares here highlights of the day.

For me, Eid, by no doubt, has always been the highlight of my year. After the blessed month of Ramadhan and devout focus on Allah the Almighty, Eid is the best celebration to conclude with. It’s a bittersweet moment, in that, Ramadhan is over, however, it’s a highly joyous occasion as we were able to experience another blessed month, for yet another year. Eid is the chance to see relatives and to indulge in sweets and snacks… and who doesn’t love food?!

My day starts by leaping out of bed excitedly, rushing to see my parents and animatedly greet them, “Eid Mubarak!” We then frantically get ready; always seeming to be in a rush to get to mosque for Eid prayers. After prayers we quickly meet as many of our friends as possible; exchanging friendly ‘Eid Mubarak’s’ with almost everyone we see, before rushing back home in time for our guests.

Being able to celebrate Eid also makes us consider the poor and needy whom may not be able to celebrate Eid joyously. Hence,  we also pay ‘Fitrana’, which is charity paid at the end of Ramadhan as a form of thanks for this month. Fitrana funds go towards those who may not be able to readily access food, in order to ease their suffering and help them in this aspect. How beautiful is it that Allah the Almighty has mandated remembering the poor and the needy at an occasion, where we also spend most time with our family!

Food prepared hours in advanced, the house kept ‘spick and span’ and decorated festively, our family members come over, spending anywhere between ten-thirty minutes for a quick meet & greet and bite. Eid is the opportunity for family that we don’t usually see throughout the year, to come together and celebrate in this religious occasion.

Together, we savour the various dishes prepared mostly by my mum while conversing and catching up from the last time we had seen each other. Each year I too would contribute in making some food, perhaps a dessert – something simple such as brownies or cupcakes. However, I’ve noticed that over the years, as the older I get, the more food I make for Eid! I’m sure that soon, I’ll be cooking all the food and my mum will just be supervising me.

After the crowd dies down, usually around late noon, my immediate family and I gather at one of my sibling’s houses to discuss our Eid plans. On Eid day itself we usually visit around eight families. As there are so many people to visit, and it is courteous to visit those who visited you as well as others that couldn’t, this part of Eid continues the next day or the weekend.

We also buy Eid gifts for the children of my family. As we don’t celebrate other worldly events much, such as birthdays, we try to place a lot more emphasis on the celebration of religious events such as Eid, for the kids. If Eid day is too busy, we move this day to the week after where our immediate family can socialise together and take some nice family photos. Eid is the one day we can all come together with everyone present for a complete family photo, without anyone missing.

We pray Zuhr prayer congregationally before leaving to visit houses as a group. One car leads and navigates while the rest follow. Here we continue going house to house, chatting and eating some more. Eating takes up most of this day. It’s probably to make up for all of the eating that we didn’t do during Ramadhan when fasting!

Overall, Eid is a very enjoyable occasion that I always look forward to as it is a chance to celebrate Allah’s blessings of love and mercy upon us with our fellow family and friends.