Biggest Eid-festival in Bangladesh

Eid-ul-fitr and Eid-ul-adha are the main festival in Bangladesh. These are the happiest time of the year for every people in Bangladesh. For a week, offices and schools remains closed during the festival.

Preparation of Eid starts long before the Eid. People go shopping for Eid dress. For men, Punjabi is the special dress for Eid. For women – Shari, and Salwar-Kamiz. During Eid shopping, people purchase for themselves, and for family members and relatives as much as possible. Giving Eid present is a long tradition of Bangladesh.

Before 2-3 days of the Eid, people start to leave the cities for their home-towns and villages. Everyone return home and gather for the festival. Quiet remote villages become crowded. Everyone goes to meet each-other in the village.

Eid day starts in the very morning by men’s and kid’s taking shower and getting ready wearing new Punjabi, and go to the Eid-gah (a special place to do eid prayer). Eid prayer lasts for at least one hour. After the prayer, everyone hugs each-other. This is the most sweetest moment of the eid. This hugging going on the whole day when meet someone new. Children purchase balloon and other toys from eid-gah.

Returning home everyone eats eid special Semai. Many kinds of Semai is prepared in the eid day. With that, some other special sweet foods – payes, firni, khir. For afternoon and evening, khichuri is the main special food during eid.

From the evening, people start to go outside. In village, everyone goes each-others houses. There they eat and gossip. In the city, during the eid days are the most quiet time of the year. No traffic jam at all. This is a really nice time to walk in the roads. People goes out to the parks with kids, specially Sisu park and Fantasy park. This is continues for the 2-3 days of the eid. After that, people start to return, and continue their usual life until another eid.

Eid-ul-Fitre is one of the two major festivals of Muslim world. Bangladesh being a Muslim majority country, the joy and happiness of Eid is spread to all the citizens of the country, regardless of their religion. After one month of fasting, Eid-ul-Fitre brings happiness to all the Muslim people in Bangladesh.

The preparation of Eid begins long before the Eid day, when everyone become busy shopping new cloths. People buy for themselves, for the family, and for relatives. Everyone buy according to their ability. Then become going home. Everyone wants to celebrate their Eid with their family. People usually come to live in the major cities to earn their living. During Eid, they want to go back to their home to celebrate the festival with their family and relatives, no matter how far that place is from where they live. Every home in every village become full during this period. In this time everyone meet their relatives, friends, and neighbors whom they haven’t met for months, may be for years. People gather everywhere in the bazaars and streets of the villages. Everywhere sound of greetings is heard and embracing is seen.

This going back home become a very tough thing, specially in Dhaka. As everyone starts to go back home in the same time few days before Eid, it becomes very difficult to arrange transportation. Wealthy people go in their own vehicles. Some people rent cars from rental companies, some goes by plane. But most of the people just rely on public transports – trains, buses, and ferries. About 10 days before the Eid, selling of advance tickets for public transportation begins. All the transports become overloaded on this time. Everyone become desperate to go back home in any way. even the roofs of buses, trains, and ferries become full. A dangerous situation arises for water transports. Sometime ferries sinks because of overloading during this period. Foreigners are advised to book their transportation long before if they wish to travel during this time. Otherwise it might be a serious problem to arrange transportation during this time.

The night before Eid brings suspense to everyone, because Eid will happen next day only if the new moon is seen the night before. Everyone eagerly waits for the news of seeing new moon. The night before Eid is called “Chand Raat” or “The night of moon”. Celebrating Eid actually starts on this night. Girls, specially children color their hands with Hena on this night.

In the day of Eid, many people go to the graves of their relatives to pray for them. Before prayers, people distribute a charity locally known as fitra. Many people also avail themselves of this opportunity to distribute zakat, an Islamic obligatory alms tax of 2.5% of one’s annual savings, to the needy. Zakat is often distributed in the form of food and new clothes. After that men get ready wearing special dress “Panjabi-Payjama” after having bath, and goes to the Eid prayer. This prayer is prayed in a special fields called “Eidgah”. All the areas usually have a Eidgah. Where there is none, the prayer is prayed in the nearby mosques. Everyone wears their new dresses and use religious perfumes called “Atar”. After the prayer, everyone embrace each-other formally. This embracing continues whole day, even the whole period of Eid, when people meet friends or relatives.

Coming back home from paryer, small children so “Salam” to elderly family members touching their legs. Elderlies give them small amount of money which is called “Eidi”. Housewives cook special food during Eid. Everyone do their breakfast after that will “Semai”, which is a special noodles like food cooked with milk, sugar, and coconut. Many other sweet food is cooked beside many type of semai during Eid. Other special common food is meat, and “Khichuri”, which is made with rice and daal. Many other special food is prepared according to the ability of the families.

In the evening, everyone goes to visit visit their relatives wearing new clothes, and food is served there. This continues during the whole period of Eid, 2-3 days after the Eid. Some people go to the tourist spots after the Eid day and stay their as long as their leave permits. City people become very happy during Eid, because only in these days of holiday they can enjoy streets without traffic jam. The city become quiet and empty. People can walk in the streets relaxing. After the celebration everyone starts to come back to the cities again, and life becomes as usual, memorizing the joy of the Eid.

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