6/15/18
Hello! I know I am a few days late but Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim friends and followers who observed the holiday.
I, and fellow interns were invited to celebrate Eid at the end of Ramadan. A few of us from the internship visited the mosque in Kathmandu to share an experience and celebrate with our Muslim brothers and sisters. There isn’t a lot of (noticeable) religious strife in Nepal but Muslims are still a minority in the country.
Eid falls on a different day every year because it depends on the lunar cycle.
Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam – along with faith, prayer, charity and the pilgrimage. It is similar to fasting practices of Catholics during the Easter season, though I have never known anyone dedicated enough to fast for 18 hours a day.
We must have missed the big celebration because when we arrived there were only a few people around waiting for the evening prayer.
In this mosque the women pray separately from the men. We were guided upstairs where we met four young girls-no older than 9- who immediately took to us and were eager to teach us salat. But first we had to prepare ourselves.
They took as downstairs into the wash room. Women on one side, men on the other. One must be clean before prayer. Arms are washed up the the elbows, hands are scrubbed, mouths are rinsed, and noses picked. Everything three times. And back upstairs.
We sat on the prayer rugs, every part of us facing East. The girls stood in front and we followed; bowing; prostrating; standing; repeat. Shortly after the girls sat between every second adult. They showed us to bring our hands up, open palm, as they cited their prayers in Arabic, stumbling and starting over when they forgot the verse but rhythmic when they got it perfect saying “aamiin” in unison to finish line breaks.
We stayed with the girls for some time after prayer to share a meal and play the playground games we all did as kids-or some variation of them.
I am grateful for these children teaching us their religion and culture. Not because it was necessarily informative or structured but because they were innocent and didn’t think twice to share in community with strangers from thousands of miles away. It’s something we can all take lesson from.
Namaste
~J
The Wandering Advocate 