{"id":2748,"date":"2022-09-26T13:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T11:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/udbjorg.wordpress.com\/?p=177"},"modified":"2026-02-07T23:53:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:53:32","slug":"eid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/?p=2748","title":{"rendered":"EID al Fitr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Every year, around the 1st of February, Dhaka\u2014the capital of Bangladesh\u2014transforms, for one spectacularly bloody day, into the world\u2019s largest slaughterhouse. Rich or poor, everybody looks forward to it. It\u2019s Eid al-Adha, the second biggest holiday in the country, and, if you\u2019re an animal, the worst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, before we get to the \u201call-you-can-eat\u201d festival, let\u2019s talk about the other Eid, Eid al-Fitr. This one marks the end of Ramadan, that 30-day spiritual endurance test where Muslims fast from dawn till dusk. And by \u201cfast,\u201d I mean not just skipping meals: no water, no sex, no pleasant thoughts, and absolutely no jokes. Basically, a full month of holy self-restraint. Unsurprisingly, tempers get short, traffic accidents multiply, and the hour before sunset turns into a national game of \u201cwho can honk the loudest while racing home to break their fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A friend once told me Ramadan was invented centuries ago when the streets were ruled by gangs, chaos, and a general shortage of law and order. The priesthood, being the only authority people still respected, decided to institute a yearly pause button: 30 days of hunger, reflection, and hopefully fewer stabbings. Not a bad idea in the Middle Ages. But in modern Bangladesh, where every calorie of productivity counts, you have to wonder: how does a whole month of self-imposed inefficiency help? \u201cLet\u2019s starve all day, binge all night, and then take a long vacation afterwards!\u201d The ways of the Lord truly are mysterious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Eid al-Fitr itself is joyful: a kind of Muslim Christmas with prayers, food, and brand-new clothes. Families visit each other, grudges are forgotten (at least temporarily), and the poor are remembered\u2014traditionally with gifts of food. Though, these days, money often replaces meat, and not everyone benefits. If you\u2019re not connected to someone with cash, you\u2019re out of luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, back to the main event: Eid al-Adha. If Eid al-Fitr is about restraint, Eid al-Adha is about release\u2014specifically, the release of blood. On this day, the entire country joins in one massive tribute to Abraham\u2019s willingness to sacrifice his son, reenacted instead with cows, goats, and sheep. Dhaka becomes a theater of carnage: streets literally run red, knives flash, and every courtyard echoes with bleating until it doesn\u2019t. And then, of course, everyone eats until they can\u2019t move. Prayer is sprinkled in for balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the beauty: it\u2019s not just a feast for the wealthy. Tradition dictates that the meat be divided into three parts: one for yourself, one for relatives, and one for the poor. For millions of people, this is the one time of year they get a solid share of fresh meat. For them, Eid al-Adha is less about spectacle and more about survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in the end, the two Eids are opposite sides of the same coin. One says, \u201cDeny yourself for a month, learn patience, and give thanks.\u201d The other says, \u201cSharpen your knives, call the butcher, and let\u2019s turn the city into a buffet.\u201d Together, they define the rhythm of Muslim life in Bangladesh: fasting, feasting, praying, and above all\u2014sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every year, around the 1st of February, Dhaka\u2014the capital of Bangladesh\u2014transforms, for one spectacularly bloody day, into the world\u2019s largest slaughterhouse. Rich or poor, everybody looks forward to it. It\u2019s Eid al-Adha, the second biggest holiday in the country, and, if you\u2019re an animal, the worst. Now, before we get to the \u201call-you-can-eat\u201d festival, let\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[98,171,242,259,369,400,401,769,1086,1204],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-allah","tag-bangladesh","tag-butchering","tag-celebration","tag-dhaka","tag-eid","tag-eid-al-fitr","tag-muslim","tag-tradition","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/img_2568.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4652,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/4652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.udbjorg.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}