Colours of Eid ul Adha 

Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid al-Adha or Festival of the Sacrifice at the end of Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid al-Adha is celebrated on the 10th of Zil-Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar. This Eid commemorates willingness of Prophet Ibraheem (alai his-salam) to sacrifice what was dearest to him as a test of faith when he was commanded by Allah to sacrifice his son, Hazrat Ismail (alai his-salam). Pleased by his obedience, Allah replaced the boy with a ram that got sacrificed instead.

In Pakistan and other Muslim countries, the Eid is marked with congregational Eid prayers and the sacrifice of animals such as camels, sheep, goats or cows. The meat is then distributed among neighbours, family members, and the poor. People dress up in new clothes, visit relatives and friends and hold feasts. 

But have you ever wondered how Muslims in non-Muslim countries celebrate this very important festival? What hardships they face and how their Eid day is different from our Eid celebrations?

Let’s have a glimpse of how people in various countries celebrate Eid ul Adha where culture, religion and laws are different from Muslim majority countries. It is important to note that because of COVID pandemic, Eid celebrations this year will probably be low-key, marked by lockdown restrictions and social distancing imposed to stop the spread of the virus.

Eid ul Adha in Canada

Canada has a Muslim population of about one million people and most Canadian Muslim families are immigrants from various Muslim countries. To celebrate Eid ul Adha, people go to a farm to pick an animal and wait for their turn to do the sacrifice. They are given a token number and have to come back later to pick up meat. Usually, the queues are so long that it takes up the whole day to move from one counter to another. That is why most people prefer to send money to their native countries instead of sacrificing the animal in a foreign land. Buying an animal, bringing it home, and taking care of it and even adorning it with bells and henna are all childhood memories that Muslim children in foreign countries can never relate to. 

But one thing that is very common in Canada and seldom seen in Pakistan is that the whole family goes to mosques for Eid prayers… men, women, children, young mothers with new born babies and the elderly. There are designated rooms for babies and toddlers, supervised by mosque volunteers. The place is very inviting for young children, well stocked with toys and stuffed animals so their mothers can listen to the Eid khutba and pray in peace. People dress up in their traditional colourful clothes for Eid. Everyone greets each other in the mosques and Islamic centres. After the prayers, people gather in each other’s homes for scrumptious lunch. Since the pandemic, it has been difficult to celebrate Eid Milan functions but people exchange gift baskets to keep the excitement alive for children.

Eid ul Adha in England

Eid ul Aha in England is different in various areas depending upon the Muslim population of the city. In areas with large Muslim population, Eid is somewhat similar to Pakistan because the markets and shops sell desi goods like mehndi, glass bangles, khussay and traditional clothes. Neighbours, friends and families pray together in big mosques, open grounds and Islamic centres and visit each other with gifts and sweet dishes. 

However in areas where there are fewer Muslims, Eid is quiet unless people decide to travel or celebrate Eid in local Islamic centres. Since people can’t keep sacrificial animal at home, they prefer to pay the cost to a charity organization that distributes meat to impoverished Muslims in other parts of the world. Muslim families try to organize Eid fairs which are open to community. Parents have to make an extra effort to make the Eid special for children with Eid decorations, preparing Eid gifts and lighting up the house. Eid is not an official holiday like it is in Pakistan so people try to take one or two days off so that they can enjoy the day with their families. 

Eid ul Adha in Japan

Muslims living in Japan come from diverse backgrounds – many are immigrants and others are students who are enrolled in various universities. There are very few proper mosques in Japan and people usually gather in rented buildings for prayers and Islamic rituals. Because of very low Muslim population in Japan, people make the Islamic centres their home away from home to keep their religious traditions alive. 

Japanese Muslims depend upon social media alerts from their nearest Islamic centre for notifications regarding prayer timings, study sessions, weddings and other social gatherings and travel by bus, train or cycle to reach at the correct time. After Eid prayers, they usually eat together and it is quite common to see food from dozens of Muslim countries in a single buffet. While praying, an Indonesian Muslim might be standing next to a Pakistani Muslim and a Sudanese Muslim shoulder to shoulder with an Arab Muslim, while the Imam may be from Bangladesh or even be a Japanese convert. On such occasions, one can see the true image of Muslims as one ummah, standing all together regardless of ethnicity, colour, race and country of origin. Eid celebrations in Japan tend to be brief as most students and immigrant workers need to return to work or study. 

Eid ul Adha in Germany

There are about 6 million Muslims in Germany and 2500 mosques. Germany’s Muslim population is very diverse with people from Turkey, Syria, Morocco, Afghanistan and Iraq making up a large proportion. Many Muslim families are refugees from war affected countries. One of the biggest hardships Muslims in Germany face is getting time off from work or school and Eid celebrations may have to wait until the weekend if the Eid falls on a weekday. People usually gather in their community centres for Eid prayers and then eat a festive meal together. Usually they try to arrange a fun fair on Eid day so that others can get to know more about Muslim culture. 

In schools, Muslim parents are sometimes invited to talk about their religion and festivals. They make an effort to introduce their traditional clothes, music and food to young German children so that they can understand the culture of their Muslim class fellows. Like in other non-Muslim countries, actual sacrifice is not done but money is sent to native countries to buy and distribute the sacrificial animal.

Eid ul Adha in Australia

Muslims in Australia are a small but dynamic group, consisting of diverse cultural and ethnic communities from different nations. Eid al-Adha in Australia is usually marked by family gatherings, with friends and relatives staying overnight in one place. Women and girls get intricate henna designs painted on their hands, traditional clothes are worn and special meat dishes are cooked. For those who want to sacrifice an animal, sheep or goat can be slaughtered in Halal way in government approved abattoirs. Many rich Muslims pay for meat to be cut, frozen, packed and shipped to poor countries or war-affected refugee camps around the world.

However, for many Australian Muslims, the festival is more than just about slaughtering animals. They try to come up with new and unique ways to celebrate their religious festival and try to include the whole community in the festive spirit.  For example last year, Muslim community centres arranged hampers filled with essential food items, hand sanitisers, masks and toys to needy families on Eid, irrespective of their religion. These hampers were packed and distributed by mosque volunteers. There is a lot of emphasis on following the rules and everyone follows the government issued SOPs. 

Whether you live in Pakistan or in any foreign country, the lessons to learn from Eid-ul-Adha celebrations are your complete faith, trust and submission to Allah. It is about spreading joy and including those who are less fortunate in our homes and hearts.  

First published in  Dawn's Young World 

 In Conversation with A Honey Bee

I sat down in the cool shade of a huge tree in my garden and drew in a deep breath. A pleasant breeze blew, bringing with it the fragrance of flowers and I savoured the serenity and tranquility all around me. I opened my book about a murder mystery and started to read. I had only read a few sentences when my peace was disturbed by a buzzing sound near my left ear.

Buzzzz….buzzzz. I looked around, twisting my head from left to right in order to locate the source of this constant buzzing. Suddenly, a honey bee came in my field of vision and my blood froze in horror. ‘I am about to get stung by a honey bee,’ I thought in panic. Images of red bumps, swelling and itching came to my mind and I was petrified.

The bee landed on my book and looked straight at me.

‘Buzzzz...hello,’ it said.

‘Err…hello’, I gulped and replied.

‘Are you the writer who once interviewed a house fly?’ It asked.

I was astonished and pleased to be recognized. ‘Well yes,’ I tried to answer modestly. ‘I did indeed interview a housefly and a mosquito and both interviews got published in Young World magazine.’ 

‘Will you take my interview too?’ The bee asked. I thought it looked a bit sad and forlorn. ‘Anything to save myself from getting stung,’ I thought. ‘Er…yes, if you are ready to answer a few questions,’ I replied. 

‘You see, I would like to tell the world about our services to the human race and the environment before we disappear from the face of this earth,’ it said.

‘What!!’ I exclaimed. 

‘In case you haven’t noticed, our population is fast declining. And it won’t be long before we are extinct like many other species on this planet due to the shenanigans of the human race.’

I sat there dumbfounded. No more bees, I thought frantically. What about honey? What will I use on other side of my buttered toast? How will I soothe my throat next time I have a sore throat or flu? 

 I scrambled around and luckily found my notebook and a pen in my bag.

‘Okay, I said trying to look professional. ‘Please tell me more about yourself. I mean facts that are lesser known about honey bees,’ I fired my first question. 

‘There are around 20,000 species of bees on planet Earth. Though people think of us in yellow and black colours, we come in many colours and sizes and not all bees make honey,’ answered my guest.

‘And how do you make honey?’ I asked, thinking of the jar in my kitchen cupboard.

‘Making honey is one of the finest examples of hard work and organized team work you will ever see,’ the bee replied proudly. ‘Worker honey bees fly up to 5km searching for flowers to get the sweet nectar. Usually, one honey bee visits between 50 and 100 flowers per trip. We suck up nectar droplets from the flower’s nectary using our long straw-like tongue called proboscis. The nectar is broken down into simpler sugars so that it stays in a liquid form in our stomach. 

Then the worker honey bees return to the colony, and pass the nectar to the house bees by regurgitating the liquid. House bees pack the nectar into hexagon-shaped honey cells. Then they turn the nectar into honey by drying it out by flapping their wings to make warm wind. There are about 60,000 bees in each colony and a colony of bees can visit up to 50 million flowers each day to collect nectar.’

‘Oh! Wow!’ My jaw almost dropped open at the numbers.

‘But what if a bee has already sucked nectar from a flower? How do other bees know which flowers still have nectar?’ I asked.

‘Now that’s a very good question,’ said the bee. ‘After we have visited a flower, we leave behind a chemical which acts like a sticky note. It tells other bees that one of us has already sucked up its nectar so they don’t bother visiting and move on to other flowers. By the time nectar is replenished in the flower, the effects of the chemical is also worn off.’

This time my jaw did drop open. I could only marvel at Nature’s awesomeness and couldn’t even think of another question. 

‘Do you know making honey isn’t the only useful thing we do?’ the bee broke the silence. ‘When we visit flowers, we also pick up pollen – a kind of powder which flower, plants, trees and grasses make and spread to help more of the same plants grow around them. So by transferring pollen we make sure more plants grow. In fact, about one-third of the food humans eat is pollinated by us.’ 

‘Hmmm… so what would happen if the population of bees declines?’

‘This would have a very devastating rippling effect on ecosystems. A number of plants that depend upon pollination by us would disappear. For example cherries and blueberries plants would become rare. There is no doubt, without us, the availability and diversity of fresh fruits and vegetables would decline to a great extent. And of course honey too,’

I stared at the bee with a glum face. What a catastrophe!

‘What can we do to help?’ I asked humbly.

‘Our population is declining in many parts of the world largely because of air pollution, drought, insecticide use, habitat loss and global warming. Our biggest problem is lack of safe habitats where we can build our homes and find a variety of nutritious food sources. The best thing human beings can do for our survival is to plant bee friendly gardens. We need plants which are rich in pollen and nectar. If there’s no space for gardens, flowers can be grown in planters, flower pots, window boxes on balconies and rooftops. Your government must control too much use of toxic pesticides and herbicides. 

And can you people please stop cutting trees. Trees are not only a great food source for us, but also an essential habitat. Tree leaves and resin provide us with nesting material, while natural wood cavities make excellent shelters. When will you realize what a devastating effect deforestation has on wildlife which is in fact necessary for your own survival?’ 

I was feeling vey ashamed by now and couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

‘Buzzzz….I have to go now and look for more nectar. But can I say one thing before I leave? Jane Goodall, a very famous anthropologist, once said, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make.” Please heed her words and decide what kind of impact you want to make on planet Earth.’ 

My tiny guest flew away leaving me deep in thought. I hope this interview makes you think about this industrious insect too and how we can play our part in saving it from extinction. 

Fun Facts About Honey Bees

• There is a surah (chapter) in the Holy Quran named after honey bees…Surah Nahl

• The honey bee is the only insect which produces food eaten by man.

• The queen bee lives for about 2-3 years. In summer she lays up to 2500 eggs a day.

• Male bees in the hive are called drones

• An average honey bee actually makes only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

• The honey bee’s wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzzing noise.

• Bees are important because they pollinate approximately 130 agricultural crops including fruits, nuts, berries and vegetable crops. . 

• Honey stored in air tight containers never spoils. Sealed honey vats found in Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s tomb still contained edible honey, despite over 2,000 years beneath the sands.

• The residence of a bee, the beehive, is a true wonder in itself. In fact, according to ancient Roman scholar Marcu Terentius Varro, the hexagonal structure is the best possible tessellating shape which can used to create a compact and easily replicable structure.  

• The honey bees do an amazing dance like movement called the Waggle Dance. This allows a bee to communicate the location of pollen rich flowers to its fellow bees. 

• Karl von Frisch, a professor of zoology in Munich, Germany, spent 50 years studying bee language and earned the Nobel Prize in 1973 for his research on bees and their waggle dance.

• 30% of world’s bee population has been lost in the past 10 years.

First published on Dawn's Young World