Today is the “Eid” which is the end of Ramadan. We were not sure if it was going to be today or tomorrow because it has to do with when they see the moon, but it was in fact today. We found out last night after our typical family fTur (breakfast) at 7pm. We always watch the same show (which I call the “Hedi Show” because it has a very catchy theme song that repeats the word “Hedi” – meaning “this” - about 80 times) every night during Ramadan. They have certain shows that they play only during Ramadan, and this is one of them. After the show concluded at 7:30 a picture of the Hassan mosque (the one I visited my first day in Rabat) with a man blowing a horn came on the screen. My host father informed us that every year he blows this horn to announce the Eid. The family exchanged hugs and kisses and proclaimed “Barak l Eid” to one another. Mohammed (the head of our program) called us all to say classes were cancelled for today. This morning we slept in and then had a lavish fTur consisting of special breads, pastries, cookies, dried olives and Sula (the nutty mixure we have every night that looks like chocolate flour). During the fTur we watched different call to prayers on the tv. We watched an orchestra from Rabat that has an annual concert on the Eid as well as the King’s speech. After an hour or so, the little boys (Mohammed and Ziad) put on their jellabas and red hats and went to the mosque with their father. Jamal (my host dad) was dressed in a fancy white jellaba and when I looked out my window I noticed that all the men on the streets were wearing white as well. Fadwa (my host mother) stayed home cooking lunch. In the mean time, some family and friends stopped by to say hello and wish everyone “barak l Eid”. Today my roommate and I wore the jellaba’s we bought. We were very excited about them but when we showed the family they told us they were lovely but that we were not allowed to wear them out of the house. I’m not sure if this is because we are not Muslim, or because the one’s we bought were for the house only. I was a little disappointed, but at least I got to wear it for a little!
It is weird for me because today is Rosh Hashana and normally I would be spending the morning in temple. Although I am obviously not in temple (or celebrating with other Jews), I still feel like I am celebrating it. The chanting of the call to prayer that I hear 5 times a day around town and what I heard on tv this morning sounds a lot like the chanting of the cantor in synagogue (and since I don’t understand Hebrew either, it sounds very similar to me). One of the breads we had this morning was a challah-like bread with the egg paste on top. Additionally, since we do not have classes and are just basically relaxing today, to me it still feels at least a little bit like Rosh Hashana because it is a break in the normal schedule.
We just had lunch, and now I am convinced it is Rosh Hashana. We had BRISKET! I’m not sure if that’s what they call it, but it was definitely brisket. Although instead of carrots and potatoes it had dried plums (I think, not really sure). They tasted like blueberries to me but they were much bigger and all shriveled up in the tagine. The broth was also a lot lighter than typical brisket marinade; it had more of a chicken soup broth consistency. Regardless, it was delicious.
They way they eat here is so interesting. We had the big plate of brisket in the center, and used bread as a utensil. We ate either with our hands or with bread as a spoon. There were no plates and no drinks (luckily I had my water bottle). But I got food all over the table/all over me…woops. I clearly have yet to master the art of eating with my hands!!
In the afternoon, we went to our host mother’s mother’s house to “visit with family”. However, this really just consisted of four older, fairly plump women sitting around a salon. They kept their distance from each other by sitting with a few feet between each of them, talked occasionally (in Arabic which I did not understand) and watched some Moroccan soap opera. Then we came home and relaxed for a while. Dinner wasn’t until 11:00 and it just mainly consisted of bread (once again, I am actually on carbo-load here..all we eat is BREAD). All in all it was a lovely, relaxing holiday (whichever one I choose to call it).
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