Eid(ish) Mubarak!

Jewelry, henna, make up, and all

        Today was the first day of my first Eid. We woke at 7:00 a.m., giving my host sister and I around three hours of sleep for the night. She's says  it's tradition to stay up very late the night before Eid. We rose, and put on our make up, since I don't normally wear make up I followed my host sister's directions and left my eye shadow up to her. Then we dawned our Eid gowns, jewelry, shaylas, lipstick, and heels.

My outfit, minus the heels.

        I tottered out of our room, and my host father remarked that, with my new outfit, "I was Omani now." Which I smiled at, but I was preoccupied with trying not to trip over my dress with my four inch heels. We all piled into the car and drove to my host uncle's house where several extended families were gathered. By the time we arrived my shayla had fallen down at least four times without my noticing, much to the worry of my host mother.

Ar'ssia, left, with grape sauce, right
bottom, and butter, right top.

         At the house I managed to tie my shayla tightly enough to stay on. We greeted all the women there, the men had gone to pray at the mosque. All the women were beautifully dressed with abayas or fancy outfits, many were decked in henna and gold as well. My host sister and I took pictures of our outfits with our phones. Then we had a breakfast of ar'ssia, mashed rice with chicken, with grape sauce and butter, which was delicious.

       After we finished eating, the men of the family came in to greet us, bringing with them eidya, hundred baizas or one rials as monetary gifts. I got 200 baiza extra for saying "wid mubarak" to an uncle, he was happy I was trying to speak Arabic. While this was going on the TV showed Sultan Qaboos praying at his fathers mosque, Sausan, my older host sister, told me that he prays in a different part of Oman each year, this year he prayed in muscat.

        After all the eidya was dolled out we grouped together for a family photo, with Sausan and me awkwardly above everyone else because there wasn't enough room and we had to stand on chairs. After a few minutes of conversation, the men left for a neighbors house.

       Sweets, fruit, and coffee were laid out on the floor and us women ate. There were grapes, kiwis, bananas, peaches and pears. I didn't recognize most of the sweets but I tried almost all of them My host mother brought the coconut cake and date dessert we had made. There were cookies, a pudding type dish made of cooked spiced sugar with pecans, and mandazi, a small donut like ball. We all ate our fill before returning to the couches to converse once more. While everyone was chatting I was the only one to see my toddler cousin take a 100 baiza note out of his mouth, examine it and pop it back in, before waddling off.

Sweets and fruits for the women's midmorning meal.

        It was nice to see so much of my extended host family. I had met many of the women at a cousin's birthday party, but many of the men were new faces. There was a lot of fast Arabic, not that I would understand it were it slow, but many relatives made conversation with me in English. We talked of henna prices (apparently I was ripped off), Obama's political party, and that Egyptians were Arab, which is something I wasn't sure of before. I found out I have several Egyptian relatives

Sisters' henna

       After returning home and switching outfits, my host sisters, my host mother, and I went to my host aunt's for a short lunch of biryani, salad, chicken, and goat. Then we headed back to the house for a much needed nap.

       We will be sacrificing a goat tomorrow, and it remains tied in our backyard until then. Tomorrow I head to my family's village, and then later to Nizwa, to celebrate Eid with our extended family that lives outside of Muscat.