Culture Shock

I realized more about how different the culture is here from our home culture during the recent holiday of Eid. The Eid takes place after Ramadan and lasts for 3 days. During this time, people buy new outfits, make special cookies, and spend the days visiting family and friends (it feels a lot like Christmas in the states). It was a fun time for us to go and visit all of our friends on the final day. Day one is for visiting close family, day two for extended family, and day three for friends.

Although there are some similarities to some of our holiday times in the states, I saw how different things are here as well.

First of all, the Ramadan and Eid celebrations are timed according to the moon. And according to when you can SEE the moon. To find out when Ramadan would end and the Eid would begin, somebody official had to see the moon and the moon had to be at a certain point in it's cycle. So, when I was trying to get information from our friends here about when they would be off work during the week of Eid, they told me know one really knows until they see the moon. That means, if it was cloudy or overcast and the moon wasn't visible to the guy in charge, the holiday didn't start the next day. That also means all government offices, banks, other large offices and the majority of people in the city, didn't know wether they would be working on Sunday or if they would have Sunday and the next 3 days off. It could have been that their holiday started on Monday instead. Can you imagine that happening in the states?? Talk about disorder!

Another difference is the crowds. Now, similar to our culture, the malls get crazy busy during the holidays with people shopping last minute and such. But here, the malls get crazy busy at ALL hours of the day and night. One of my friends here who is also pregnant wanted to take me shopping for maternity clothes on the first night of the Eid. She picked my up at my house at 10. P.M. We had a blast, and ended up shopping for over three hours. By 1:30 a.m., we decided that our pregnant bodies needed some sleep. But the malls were still packed. And with KIDS! That's another thing. Kids don't go to bed here early at all. Especially when there's no school the next day. Our downstairs neighbor has a 4-year-old who is always up later than we are. So at the mall that night, I saw a ton of families walking around with their babies, toddlers and school-aged kids who looked like 1 a.m. didn't even phase them. Amazing.

The holiday is finally over. Another Eid will happen in a month or so, celebrating something entirely different. We'll let you know more about the cultural differences there when it comes.