Today is Eid for us. My MIL has been cooking since early morning. I've been hiding out. I never was much for holidays so I try to be as invisible as possible. It helps that I work nights and sleep during the day so for the most part I can get away with not making an appearance.
My husband and I don't partake in any of the celebrations. We prefer the less commercialized non traditional way of doing things, but he and I are a minority of two. While his family doesn't do as much as others, they still have their own traditions of food, gift giving (eidi), and visiting each other. However since my husband is the head of the household, we do give gifts to my two sister in laws and provide the food for the day as it is traditionally the head of household's responsibility, but he and I try to be as scarce as possible for the actual festivities.
In the bigger cities, they have major celebrations with lots of sweets, fireworks, camel and horse rides for kids, kite flying, and music. We don't attend those, but for the majority it is the way they celebrate Eid. New clothes, shoes, and jewelry are bought. They were showing how busy the markets were last night on the news and all I could do was shake my head and be thankful I was not amongst them.
Almost all of the women have mehndi/henna applied to their hands and arms. They are usually done by professionals who apply intricate designs and details. My SIL's both apply mehndi but they do it themselves instead of going to have it professionally done. The first two years I was here they tried and tried to get me to wear it, but I don't wear mehndi. Never. I didn't even wear it for my wedding which is like UNHEARD of. Now though they have pretty much given up trying to get me to put it on. Although every now and then my oldest SIL still asks me to and I still say no.
The only thing I think I truly enjoy about today is a guilt free reason to eat biscuits (aka cookies) lol
