The Ways of Celebrating the Religious Festivals by the People in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

Celebrations Module Module ID: The present paper aims to thrash out the ways of celebrating the religious festivals by the people in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The main objective behind elaborating the festivals includes the exploration of cultural aspects and religious values observed by the masses belonging to the country, in which the two holiest sites of the Islamic world are situated. The paper will provide a detailed insight into the religious teachings attributed to the Muslim community by elucidating the concept of festival in their eyes, and will discover whether the community sticks to the true spirit of Islamic faith, or has invented new methods of celebrating the religious festivals. Hence, the paper will concentrate upon depicting the activities related to festival celebrations, though it will also encompass the religious teachings and cultural values emulated by the Saudi Arabians in contemporary era. The Paper: It is a reality beyond suspicion that recreational activities and amusements have always been an essential part of the collective life of every society and culture existing on the face of the earth since primitive era (Ember & Ember, 2007:389). Though the people get involved into different recreational activities on individual basis, societies have also invented the ways to enjoy time collectively, which gave birth to the celebrations and festivals. By looking into the history of festivals, it becomes evident that most of the festivals are celebrated in the light of religious commands all over the world. It is not only the case with one particular group, community or nation; on the contrary, the same is equally applicable to all cultures and civilizations of the world. For instance, holly and deewali are celebrated by the Hindus with great religious fervor, while the Easter and Christmas are the most significant festivals in the eyes of the Christians belonging to diversified geographical zones of the globe. Similarly, Sukkoth, Yom-Kippur and other religious functions are revered and celebrated by the Jewish community. The same is equally applicable on the Muslims, which serve as the second largest religious group of the entire world. Like other faiths co-existing on the face of the earth, the Muslims also celebrate their religious festivals. Somehow, the methods and manners of celebrating these festivals vary from one Muslims state to the other. Hence, cultural influences dominate in Muslim societies, which have added and introduced new and novel ways of enjoyments while celebrating the religious festivals. There are two traditional festivals attributed to the Islamic faith, which include Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, both of which are observed according to the lunar Islamic months or sighting of moon. The term Eid simply means festivity, happiness or joy; consequently, both the Eids are considered to be synonymous with happiness (Cartright~Jones, 2001:4). Eid-ul-Fitr Eid-ul-Fitr is observed on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of Islamic calendar in the wake of the holy month of Ramadan. The Eid-ul-Fitr is regarded to be the reward bestowed upon the Muslims against their keeping fast during the whole month of Ramadan from early dawn to sunset. The Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations start from the evening of the last day of Ramadan as soon as moon is sighted. The people gather with the aim of sighting the moon, which simply stands for the end of Ramadan and fasting. In case, moon is not sighted on 29th day of Ramadan, the fasting month will be of thirty days; consequently, the gathering for sighting the moon is not made on 30th day of Ramadan, as it is understood that it would be Eid the next day. The Muslims in Saudi Arabia begin the 1st day of Shawwal with Fajr prayer, one of the five daily obligatory prayers. The houses are especially cleansed and decorated all over the country to welcome the festival. After it, some sweet dish is taken, which has already been cooked for Eid day by women. The Saudis wear new clothes, which are especially prepared for this day, and start gathering for another prayer, called Eid prayer, which is generally offered in some vast ground, field or spacious mosque (Cartright~Jones, 2001:5). Before offering the prayer, the Saudis pay fitrana or charity to the deserving and needy people, from all family members, which is obligatory for every Muslim. The motif behind paying fitrana is including the poor and pauper members of society in the joys of Eid. As soon as the prayer is over, the Saudis start congratulating one another by embracing the people attending the prayers around them. It has been the tradition that usually only males offer Eid prayer, though in some places, women also attend the prayer, despite the very fact that separate halls or tents are allocated for the females. Since the Saudis strictly believe in the gender segregation, they do not allow co-gatherings for the members belonging to opposite genders. In addition, the observing of veil is strictly obligatory for all of the adult females without discrimination, so that they could remain protected from the lustful eyes of the stranger adult males (Hoodfar, 1994: 10). As a result, there does not exist any concept of the mixing of male and female members of society in Saudi Arabia altogether. On the contrary, the women even do not attend any function or gathering without wearing the veil, in which there are some probabilities of the presence of men. Hence, women generally remain confined at homes on the eve of all festivals, and remain engaged in serving the male members of their family. On the other hand, men are allowed to meet their male friends, relations, neighbors, co-workers and others, as well as they can invite their male friends at their residences or places without any restrictions. The male members return to their residences after offering Eid prayer. At this moment, various dishes are served to all members of family. The Saudis distribute money among the children that is called eidee or pocket money on Eid. The modern has also witnessed the trends of Saudis’ greeting one another through phone-calls and sending messages as well through mobile phones and e-mails. Hence, the country is taking advantage of the latest technological equipments in order to share their joys with family, friends and relatives at large. The markets and bazaars are decorated on the eve of Eid, and governmental, non-governmental as well as private and public offices remain closed for three to five days of Eid. In the same way, the banks and financial and educational institutions also observe complete holidays during these days, and people are allowed to enjoy the days out of their personal choice within the statutes of prevailing Saudi laws. The people also visit their relations along with their families, though women remain in veil during setting out long and short journeys outside their residences. People also exchange gifts, sweets, fruit and other things, and arrange parties and functions on Eid day. The shop-keepers offer special Eid gifts to the children and customers during the Eid holidays, which capture the attraction of youngsters to a great extent. The people arrange parties and get together with the aim of sharing their joys with others. Hence, everyone looks happy and jubilant during the Eid festival. Eid-ul-Adha: Eid-ud-Adha enjoys great significance among the Muslims, which is also called to be Beqr Eid, Eid-e-Qurban or the Feast of Sacrifice. This Eid actually maintains the Biblical theme in its background, where the event is celebrated in memory of the sacrifice made by the first patriarch and holy prophet Abraham (or Ibrahim in Arabic) by attempting to offer the sacrifice of his elder beloved son Ishmael (Ismail). According to the Muslim traditions, the Prophet Ibrahim had found himself in his dreams that he was sacrificing Ismail, the most precious thing in his possession, in the way of Almighty Allah, out of sheer love for Him (Al-Qur’an, 37:100-111). Ibrahim had also sought the will of his son, where Ismail also turned out to be steadfast and devout to comply with the commandments of the Lord. So Ibrahim closed his eyes with the piece of cloth, so that he could not see his son being slaughtered at his own hands. Somehow, as soon as Ibrahim kept the knife on the throat of Ismail, God sent the arch-angel Gabriel to replace sheep with Ismail. It is therefore, the Saudis, along with the entire Muslim community, celebrate Eid-ul-Adha by sacrificing the animals in the way of Allah. Despite the fact that sheep was sacrificed by Ibrahim, the Muslims are allowed to sacrifice camels, goats, sheep and cows in order to commemorate the great sacrifice Ibrahim intended to make out of his unwavering dedication to the Lord. Like Eid-ul-Fitr, the Saudis also get new clothes, decorate the houses and bazaars and offer Eid prayer on Eid-ul-Adha; somehow, fitrana is not due to be paid by them on this Eid. On the contrary, the people sacrifice the halal animals, meat of which is distributed among the relations, friends, poor and needy. The people exchange meat of animals they have sacrificed, and arrange parties in which special dishes are prepared out of the meat of the animals. The benevolent and kind-hearted people also pay visits of hospitals, orphan houses and prisons in order to see and present gifts to the ill, poor and needy members of society. Since the faith of Islam gives the universal message of love, sacrifice, unity, brotherhood and compassion, the sane and sympathetic Saudis keep the noble teachings of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) in mind while celebrating the joys Eid days offer to them. The festival is celebrated in different manner in the holy city of Makkah Al-Mukarrama due to the very fact that the Eid-ul-Adha is celebrated on 10th day of Zilhaj the last month of Hijra calendar; and the hajj or sacred pilgrimage of Holy Ka’ba is performed on 9th of Zilhajj every year. As a result, the traditions attributed to Eid-ul-Adha are somewhat different in Makkah, where the pilgrims belonging to all regions and geographical zones of the globe arrive for performing the holy pilgrimage. As a result, although people of this holy city also celebrate the Eid-ul-Adha in conventional manner. Somehow, because of the very high security alert in the wake of the such a gathering of hundreds of thousands of individuals from diversified ethno-racial and regional groups, communities, age-groups and both the genders, city remains full with foreigners, who sacrifice their animals at the Mina Valley, where they untie their aehraam, the traditional hajj dress, and perform the activities related to the Eid. Contrary to Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha is celebrated for three days in a sense that the Saudis present the animals for sacrifice from offering Eid prayer till the sunset of 12th day of Zilhajj. Thus, the dinners, bar-b-q and Eid celebration parties remain at their peak for three days of Eid-ul-Adha. Another distinction of the festival is this that the Saudis also demonstrate generosity and kindness to the poor and needy, and there seldom remains any family throughout the country that has not enjoyed meat of at least one animal to the satiety of the family. Consequently, both the Eids not only serve as the exhibition of religious performance and delightfulness, but also these festivals also depict the climax of brotherhood and unity amongst the people of the country. To conclude, it becomes evident that both the Eids contain meaning and message in their nature and scope. Celebrating the festivals reflect the true spirit of the faith that all humans are equal in the eyes of the Creator, and only the pious and sacrificing enjoys superior status according to the noble teachings of faith. Since Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha serve as the two sole religio-cultural festivals of the country, the Saudis take very active part to celebrate them in an exciting and thrilling manner. References Cartright~Jones, Catherine. (2001). Id al-Adha: Sacrifice and Henna Traditions pp. 2-7 Retrieved from http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/id/Id.pdf Ember, Carl R. & Ember, Melvin. (2007). Cultural Anthropology. New York: Pearson Education Limited. Hoodfar, Homa (1994).The Veil in their Minds and on our Heads: the Persistence of Colonial Images of Muslim Women.RFR/DRF Volume 22 Number 3/4Department of Sociology and Anthropology Concordia University Montreal, Quebec pp. 5-18 Retrieved http://www.umass.edu/wost/syllabi/spring06/hoodfar.pdf The Holy Qur’an. Surah Al-Saaffaat 37:100-111 Read More