Skip to main content

Eid-al-Fitr, The End of Ramadan



Eid-al-Fitr is the first day of  the month of Shawwal and the day Ramadan ends, so it is celebrated by Muslims around the world: people dress in their best clothes, exchange gifts, attend communal prayers, listen to a sermon (khutba), practice charity with the poor (zakat al-fitr), and they greet with the words "Eid Mubbarak!" (Holy Feast!) as you can read on this web page.



In Turkey, this year's Eid's celebrations will be severely restricted to fight the spread of the coronavirus epidemic: a strict 24-hour curfew has been ordered in 83 provinces for two days and worshippers will not be allowed to pray in mosques, as you can read in this Aljazeera report and video, which is accessible to B2 students and above.



But the epidemic has also brought "amazing signs of solidarity" like the Berlin church that has hosted Muslim worshippers to help them maintain physical distancing rules while they pray together in Eid-al-Fitr, as Aljazeera reports in this B2 article.



In Arabia, Saudis are finding new ways to celebrate Eid-al-Fitr in lockdown:  Muslims will perform Eid-al-Fitr prayers at home, and they will exchange homemade gifts, decorate their home for the occasion and play home games like pinatas,  according to this Arab News report, which quotes 30-year-old Hadeel Ezmirli: "I want to at least feel the vibe of Eid, even though I will be at home".  This article, for its length and vocabualary can be classified as C1.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Women and children overboard

It's the  Catch-22  of clinical trials: to protect pregnant women and children from the risks of untested drugs....we don't test drugs adequately for them. In the last few decades , we've been more concerned about the harms of research than of inadequately tested treatments for everyone, in fact. But for "vulnerable populations,"  like pregnant women and children, the default was to exclude them. And just in case any women might be, or might become, pregnant, it was often easier just to exclude us all from trials. It got so bad, that by the late 1990s, the FDA realized regulations and more for pregnant women - and women generally - had to change. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) took action too. And so few drugs had enough safety and efficacy information for children that, even in official circles, children were being called "therapeutic orphans."  Action began on that, too. There is still a long way to go. But this month there was a sign that ...

Benefits Of Healthy eating Turmeric every day for the body

One teaspoon of turmeric a day to prevent inflammation, accumulation of toxins, pain, and the outbreak of cancer.  Yes, turmeric has been known since 2.5 centuries ago in India, as a plant anti-inflammatory / inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and also have a good detox properties, now proven to prevent Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Turmeric prevents inflammation:  For people who

Austerity-A Fancy Word for Destitute.

The reason for this post is not for the folks who have been caught in the first wave of personal economic hard reality, but the next wave. Regardless of the optimism espoused by grinning leaders and sycophant press, we are entering the final stage of global economic collapse. It began in 2008 and was forestalled for five years with fudge putty, but the weight of global indebtedness cannot be propped any longer and the final crunch is imminent. Austerity measures herald the final throes.  Indications of coming austerity.   Austerity measures are the final last ditch effort, futile or not! Back in the day many of us old-timers went through periods of "hard-times". In retrospect I realize there is no comparison to yesteryear hard times and today's version. Back then, expectations were never very high for the working class, there were no sophisticated systems or conveniences anyway. In fact the difference between being "set" or not was about having treats or not. Si...