A Muslim doesn’t have to celebrate Christmas or the New Year’s Eve to enjoy a glass of frothy eggnog (milk, cream, sugar and eggs) and a Jew doesn’t have to celebrate the Eid Al-Adha to enjoy a plateful of Kabsah (rice with meat or chicken).
Muslims celebrate two religious festivals. Eid Al-Fitr, which falls at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and the other Eid Al-Adha, which falls in the month of Dul Hijjah. We celebrate these days according to the Hijrah calendar, which starts from the year our Prophet (peace be upon him) migrated from Makkah to Madinah. Both the events are celebrated in Saudi Arabia with religious zeal. Saudis and expatriates (Muslims and non-Muslims) share these rejoicing moments and enjoy the festivities together. But what is the story of the American Jewish Rabbi?
In the United States, Saudi students get together in many cities across America to celebrate the two Eids. On Oct. 15, 2013 about 800 students got together in Boston to celebrate Eid Al-Adha. Guess, who was the guest of honor at the party? It would be pertinent to mention here that Eid Al-Adha is celebrated to honor the willingness of Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his young first-born son Ismael as an act of submission to God’s command.
Well, the guest of honor was an American Jewish rabbi. He was invited by one of the Saudi students to attend the celebrations. Dr. Fahad Al-Tayash in an article published in Alriyadh has written that the rabbi initially hesitated but later accepted the invitation. He was overwhelmed by the hospitality and the warm welcome accorded to him.
Last week, I read an article titled “Expats be allowed to celebrate their events” by Sabria S. Jawhar in this newspaper. The title says it all. A few days later, Alyoum published an article written by Tarfah Bint Abdulrahman about Saudis who travel to other countries, mainly other Gulf states to see Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
These articles reminded me of my childhood when I first learned about Christmas. Like many other kids in the Eastern Province, I used to go to Dhahran to watch the festivities from a distance, which were being held at the main Aramco compound. We used to see illuminated houses, strange looking cone shaped trees decorated with tiny bulbs and happy faces.
The other thing that I remembered about Christmas and New Year’s Eve was when I was studying at the State University of New York, Maritime College. Believe it or not, I used to be skinny and my classmates used to call me slim. There was only one classmate who was even skinnier than me. She was a female cadet named Lee Ann, who now lives in Maryland. Anyway, it was the December of 1975 when one of my classmates advised me to drink eggnog to gain weight. He told me to wait until the end of the holiday seasons and to go to one of the supermarkets on East Tremont Avenue and buy cans of virgin eggnog at discounted rates. It was very nutritious and loaded with calories. That was an advice, which I took seriously and started drinking eggnog straight from the cans. For the information of the readers, I am planning to contact the same classmate to ask for an advice on how to lose the weight that I have gained.
The bottom line is that people from different religions and faiths can share their happy moments with each other. Sharing happy moments with people from different countries and different faiths can bring people together. I still remember celebrating one of the Eids in a Church in Pensacola, Florida and during the month of Ramadan, we heard about Jewish temples, which were made available for Muslim worshipers to perform their evening prayers. However, it is important to be mindful of some of the restrictions while joining in the celebrations with our non-Muslim friends. I don’t mean opening the whole door but there must be some kind of leeway.
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