Festivity !

Its Eid day today.The last eid I posted about , a few months back, was Eid ul Fitr, which is to celebrate the completion of the month of Ramdan.This eid, Eid ul Azha is celebrated as the Hajj is completed.Hajj is the muslim annual pilgrimage to Makkah and consists of a set of rituals to perform in accordance with with Allah's ( God's ) orders. On this Eid muslims are supposed to sacrifice an animal (cow,lamb,sheep,goat,or camel) in the remembrance of Prophet Abraham's exemplary act of dedication to God.When he was ordered by God to sacrifice prophet Ismail,his son, in God's name, prophet Abraham and Ismail both showed their obedience to Allah by agreeing to the act. But just when Prophet Abraham raised the knife, prophet Ismail was spared by god and a lamb took his place.This was a test by God for both the father and the son who not only passed the test (obviously !) but also left a great example of loyalty to God.So in remembrance of that grand example of patience and devotion, muslims all around the world perform the sacrifice, and distribute the meat among the poor and needy.After that is the usual festivity and everyone wishes eid to everyone else and people go and their meet their relatives etc.. I'll be updating my activities of Eid day soon :)

The past two to three days have been very hectic, because not only was there my elective to manage, but also eid preparations, some reasearch work I'm doing, and to top all that was my friend Rita's sister's wedding (hehe sounds complicated does n't it ?) .I was more than excited about the wedding because not only were all my friends going to be there but also it was to be the first time I'd attend a Hindu wedding.I just love getting to see and experience different cultures and different religious rituals, and what better event can there be to do that than a wedding.I believe weddings can tell you a lot about the culture, and that proved to be right yesterday ! It was a whole new experience and pretty intriguing too..The wedding was pretty different from the traditional muslim Pakistani wedding. They had a fire around which the couple had to move 4 times, thrice with the bride in front of the groom and in the last round with the groom ahead.All this time the hands of the groom and the bride were tied and the brides face was covered . The wedding arrangement was distinct too, with there being a central square area, on the four corners of which there were pots mounted and in the centre was the fire for the couple to go around. There were to be more rituals after the round but I had to leave since it was getting late.But it was a lot of fun to witness something new for the first time.

The circumduction around the fire .


My best wishes to the bride and groom !