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Expatriate Eid

S.Bari
THE festive spirit is every inch a homebody. Halloween Is never quite as thrilling transplanted to Indonesia, and Durga Puja somehow loses a touch of life when celebrated in Copenhagen. Yet expatriates, far from home and the special joy of shared holidays, persist in re-creating the sounds and smells and soul of their native festivals. The motives of their persistence are several One is to prevent yourself from bursting into tears as you imagine your reunited family gathered round the Thanksgiving turkey while you are manning the consulate tn Kabul. Another is to retain your Identity amid the strains of liv Ing in a foreign culture : to leaf through the Gitabitan on the 21st of February because in Canberra you don't speak Ben gall the other 364 days of the year. An equally compelling motivation is to instill in your children a sense of where they came from : to bring out the Beaujolais and sing La Marseii laise every year on Bastille Day for your 12 year-old Tokyo bom-and-bred ton.
Expatriates world-wide are obliged to internalize their festivals, to confine their celebrations to the four walls of their homes or community centres. The day is yet to come when figures of Ganesh are carried down the Mall and immersed in the Potomac. For Bengali Muslims abroad. Eid-ul-Azha is publicly imperceptible. even less celebrated Eid-ul Fltr More often than not. Qurbanl Eid passes unnoticed among school, work, and the general hectic tenjpo of life. Or maybe someone will flip through the calendar they brought back from their last home leave and discover the approaching day Phone calls will emanate from the house. 'Did you know the day after tomorrow's Eld?" Office life goes on. and the children go to school as usual. At the most.
sweetmeats will be ready for the unexpected guest If the lady of the house does not work, there may be something a little more elaborate on the table. Since actual slaughter is generally prohibited in Western countries. Bengalis turn their attention to other, less bloody aspects of the day. Children are told the story of sacrifice, and about how Eid is celebrated back home. Excitement centres around the unusual frequency of friends dropping in. the chatter, and maybe some music.
Many Bengali Muslims have benefited in surprising ways from their expatriate condition : physical and emotional distance has enabled them to critically examine their relationship with Islam For some, this analysts has brought them closer to their faith, to a more mature understanding of the underlying symbolisms in issues they had once accepted blindly. These Bengalis empha size the spirit of sacrifice that Eid commemorates, and pay homage to that through some real sacrifice, not of another Hvlng being bought specially for that purpose, but by giving up something, anything, dear to them.
For those who have a mosque to go to. the Eld prayers are an eye-opener i Muslims of all races and na-i tlonallties. each in his native dress, crowd the floors. The sight of so many, so varied in i language, culture, colour, and traditions, assembled under one roof and bowing to pray in unison, is a breath-taking one I Ethiopians and Americans.
Swedes and Thals. Arabs and Bengalis are for that moment of prayer united, a scene to i make even the most vehement of skeptics believe in Muslim > brotherhood. And perhaps the reassurance and reaffirmation of that bone, tn the midst of t conflicts around the world, are ! what spur the expatriate on to f celebrate Eid. even in exile