Eid al-Fitr

Our Ramadan holidays are like the projection of that magnificent harmony of faith and love in the hearts. The pleasant aroma of devotion is now adorned with the flowers of patience in the soul. The energy spheres of purified bodies and hearts shine in the lands of the soul...

On feast days, the soul overflows with the color and fragrance of God, the Great Creator. Feasts are the times when we feel closest to Him, when we think we are closest to Him; when we breathe in His fragrance the most...

Eid is a time when the flowers of love bloom in the heart. Ramadan is a divine gift, a time when the house of our body and soul is cleaned inside and out, the dust is removed, the impurities are thrown away and replaced with sincerity and compassion. Yes, it is like a kind of birthday; the soul sets off again as if rejuvenated and renewed...

Yes, it is about the purification of the soul, the mind, the thoughts, the intellect and the whole body together, so that we feel deeper and more blessed on Eid days than on other days. All harmful habits are patiently destroyed or controlled for a month. The joy of self-discipline, performance to win the love of God and man, is mixed with feelings of charity and compassion. Hearts are polished and bathed in the light of contentment.

The most glorious Eid beginnings are the Eid prayers that begin in the first minutes of the morning, with children and children going to them. This is one of the most marvelous and enviable ceremonies of Eid. The souls lined up side by side and back to back are bathed in the energy flowing from the blessed source of 'oneness' and become one in the nature of purity. These are times when differences and ranks fall, equality shines, friendship, brotherhood and love blossom. At the exit, everyone, whether they know each other or not, exchanges Eid greetings, handshakes and treats.

After the mosques, cemeteries are visited, prayers are offered for the dead and Qurans are read. Eid does not start without visiting cemeteries. How beautiful our holidays are and for a long time we have turned these beautiful holidays into vacations. Before we even mourn the loss of our holiday culture, I wonder if even our holiday festivals are disappearing into history. This year, there are no holiday festivals anymore. There is no trace of the holiday anymore. Everything is as unreal as if it happened centuries ago, as if everything happened only in a dream. This is my first holiday where I was separated from my parents, even from my children, separated from my wife and friends, trapped in a house alone. I think there is a message for us? I think we need to wake up to this message and accept it. Seeing the big picture, looking at the picture from the outside... My late grandmother used to start by saying... When we were children. We would get angry... In our childhood...

We used to start preparing for the feast days in advance. We would first clean the windows and frames, wash every nook and cranny, beat the carpets in the gardens...

Weeks in advance, mothers would start preparing holiday clothes. Back then, there were neither ready-made clothes nor the money to buy them. But every holiday, children were delighted with festive clothes. Depending on the season, they were either knitted or sewn. Colorful sile cloth, flannel, chintz, linen dresses; sweaters, hats, bags knitted from wool orlon. On eve nights, we would sleep with the new clothes on our bedside table. Once I even slept wrapped in my red shoes, looking forward to the morning...

During the holidays, starting with the eldest ones, friends and relatives would visit their neighbors, and then their return visits would be expected. Children were the ones who benefited the most from this. They were given starched, lace, silky handkerchiefs, frilly socks, money, candy and chocolate. Everyone would try to make the children happy as much as they could. We would count our money and put it in a piggy bank, and when it accumulated, our mother would make up for our shortcomings.

Our cologne bottles would be filled days in advance, lemon cologne, tobacco cologne, green, red, various scents. Pastries and cookies would be prepared alongside the lemonade. Various kinds of wraps, stuffing, desserts, buns, and meals were prepared for relatives. Everyone would eat and drink together, mostly on Eid. After breakfast with the grandfathers and fathers returning from the Eid prayer, everyone from the oldest to the youngest would line up and exchange Eid greetings one by one, kissing the hands of the elders. Of course, the little ones were also delighted with pocket money and festive clothes. We used to look forward to the Eid holidays with the carousels that were rotated by human power in our neighborhood. We used to spend some of our first allowances on the rotating swings. Those who didn't have money would say "this is our Eid gift" and they would even give everyone another free ride.

On every corner there would be colorful balloonists, rooster candy sellers, candy apple sellers, cotton candy sellers. The holidays were like a feast, there would be the joy of the holidays, the holidays would be a feast, in short, from children to adults... But what about those who were far away? The first preparations a week ago included writing greeting cards. Not every house had a telephone, and even if they did, it would take hours and sometimes days to connect. Writing letters and greeting cards used to take up a large part of our Turkish lessons in primary school. We used to love the huge greeting stands that were set up before the holidays. We used to buy all kinds of colorful cards with televisions (cards that changed shape with different light angles when tilted back and forth), cards with pictures of flowers, animals, landscapes and cities as much as we could afford. We would calculate which card would be sent to whom. We would buy envelopes and stamps for the number of cards. Then we would write a personalized congratulatory message (not to 1000 people with a single stereotypical message) in a few sentences, put it in the envelope without gluing it, and mail it to the address. In return, we would look forward to the postman and snatch the greeting cards from his hands before he even knocked on the door.

Why were holidays once sacred? Holidays were a time when no one was poor, deprived or alone. Every door was knocked for a visit, every sick and old person's hand was kissed, every person in need was smiled upon. What was cooked in the neighbor fell to the neighbor, no one would celebrate a holiday when there were hungry people in the neighborhood. Since everyone gave their zakat and fitrah to the best of their ability, there were no needy people during the holidays.

Yes...
Our old holidays will come again, with the same pleasantness, the same elegance; with the same unity and the same enthusiasm of 'love'. As long as we read the message in our Eid card, sent to us from the Divine 'THAT IS'; let's start transforming and changing from within. Let us shine friendship, brotherhood, sharing, mercy, compassion, empathy within us, and above all, let us bless our 'oneness'. Let's get it into our heads that every 'soul' is a mirror of us. If I love, I love myself; if I get angry, I get angry with myself; if I harm, I harm myself; if I help, I help myself...

That's the secret... Let's solve the secret...

Everything will be alright. And blessed holidays will come again...

Mukaddes Pekin Başdil

Researcher-Author

Source: Denizli Haber