Eid Mubarak Everybody!

So the official person in charge of sighting the new moon sighted it last night, which meant that today was the end of Ramadan and the day of Eid-al-Fitr. Atticus had the day off school. Due to a confusing printing on the school calendar however, we were not sure about whether he had school today or not, so we woke up and went in just in case, and of course there was no school. Oh well, it was a nice rickshaw ride in and a nice chance to spread some Eid cheer by giving our rickshaw-walah a big tip. (This is actually one of our favorite parts of Eid.)

So we made our way back home amid quiet streets. Of the people that were out, everyone was in a great mood and things just felt festive all day. Here's the banner over the road to our neighborhood - it says Eid Mubarak (which means Happy Eid, or maybe Blessed Eid, but you get the idea), and yes, it is temporarily covering the usual banner which is an ad for Rich frozen chicken nuggets.

PHOTO: Eid Mubarak!

After we hung around home for a while (and received our delivery of Atti's birthday cakes for tomorrow- but that's another post...) we went downstairs to Mr. Tanvir's house (our landlord) for a little traditional Bengali treat. It is funny because Atticus is still kind of shy around him and wasn't sure he wanted to go, but as soon as we said there would be mishti (the traditional sweet here) he was all for it! We had some tasty treats that Mr. Tanvir's family prepared and while it was a little awkward socially, it was worth it to let Atticus experience some of the local culture (the tradition is to stop by friends' and relatives' homes on this day) and the food was mighty tasty.

Afterwards we went for a walk around town. It was nice because even though most things were closed, everyone was out walking around dressed in their fancy clothes and in a great mood. It seemed like people were just out to be seen and to say Eid Mubarak to everyone. There were several bands of musicians going around and playing music and it was just an all around pleasant afternoon (except for Jon's repeated Jimmy Stewart impersonation saying "Eid Mubarak Everybody! Eid Mubarak" ala It's a Wonderful Life...).

PHOTO: The Eid band

Tomorrow is Atticus' birthday, so our big plans (as per his instructions) are that he'll take a cake to school to enjoy with his friends, at pick-up time we'll go straight to have our lunch/early dinner at Pizza Hut (and I'm certain this special day will mean that dinner includes a Sprite for him to drink) then back home for more cake (um... otherwise Jon and Sam don't get cake if it is at school and that is unacceptable) and presents. We'll update on that tomorrow though.