Eid Mubarak
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Well, today is the first day of Eid, the multi-day Muslim holiday that occurs twice a year – once after Ramadan, and the other (this one) after the hajj to Mecca.
Eid is not turning out to be to a great time to be in Sana’a, as almost everything is closed and much of the population have gone back to their villages to visit their families for the holiday. I’m surprised that we even found an open Internet cafe. We had hoped to visit the national museum today but it’s closed, so we’re not sure what to do with ourselves! Tomorrow we’ll try to get out of the city again.
Anyway, some Eid observations:
It is tradition for Muslim families to buy a live sheep, goat or cow and have it slaughtered in your yard according to the halal practice. We have seen a few places in Sana’a with livestock being held on the side of a road next to a butcher’s shop in preparation for Eid. In fact, we’ve been told that even when it’s not Eid, butchers in Sana’a don’t have fridges and all meat is slaughtered and sold fresh, according to demand.
On a brighter note, it is tradition for Muslims to buy new clothes (or receive them as gifts) for Eid, so this morning everyone in Sana’a is immaculately dressed. The men have new, shining thobes and the little girls all have beautiful coloured dresses and henna tattoos on their hands and arms.
Anyway, that’s all for today. We’re hoping to go back to Kawkaban tomorrow and use it as a base to visit some towns we haven’t seen yet, and Wendy might be able to go to a wedding there on Tuesday, insha’allah.
Six or so of these tower houses in the old city are now budget or mid-range hotels, and we’re lucky enough to be staying on the fifth floor of the one that is said to have the best view of old Sana’a out of all of them. We are in a lovely little room with two floor mattresses and four windows, from where we can look out and see an endless skyline of these tower houses broken only by the occasional minaret.
For the first time in our travels in Muslim countries, Wendy is wearing an abaaya that she bought from a shop in the souq. Even more so than in Qatar, almost all Yemeni women either wear the full veil or the one with eye slits, though Wendy has gone with a shaila that covers her hair and neck but not her face. I’m still contemplating going Yemeni myself, which would involve a dish-dasha (a man-dress, for lack of a better term), a tea-towel style headdress and a belt and dagger, which all Yemeni men wear.
Nick