Eid Elfitr is the celebration that occurs after a month of fasting and the translation is the breaking of the fast celebration. The feast itself starts with a very early Eid prayer in the Mosque. Chanting in mosques of (Allahhuakbar Wa Lilah Alhamd) God is great and praise is to Allah will echo all over Libya, indeed all over the Muslim world.
The whole family young and old will be decked out in their new clothes and depending on your position in the family it determines if you stay at home and receive well wishers or you yourself are a well wisher making your rounds on relatives.
As a general rule the ladies stay at home and receive the guests while the males go and wish all their relatives the wishes of the season.
Families celebrate Eid in different ways. Some will wake up early and start celebrations in the morning while other families prefer to wake up later and celebrate later in the afternoon. The breakfast and lunch are the meals that Ramadan is void of and so breakfast on the first day of Eid is special.
As the well wishers come the sweets prepared for Eid are handed out and it is always the gorgeous Libyan Baklava that finishes first !!
Lunch is always a big deal and depending on family traditions it will range from beans to fish but it's always shared with family and friends and that’s what makes it taste great.
Eid is the day that your digestion is shocked beyond repair from the excessive amounts of tea and coffee plus the decadent Eid sweets and the Eid lunch, so you better have that heart burn medication ready.
The Eid is also about forgiveness and making amends to people who you may have wronged or those who have wronged you through the year, so with the Eid greetings people will also commonly ask people for forgiveness from those who they are in constant contact, with like co workers or family members, just in case you may have intentionally or unintentionally uttered a comment that may have hurt their feelings or offended them.
Many will start fasting again once Eid is over because Muslims are recommended to fast six days of the next month too. It is not compulsory but it is highly recommended.
In Ramadan each good deed is rewarded ten fold and so thirty days of fasting are effectively 300 days (do the maths). So if you fast six more days in the next month then that is 60, so that way you have 360 days of fasting, which is one year. That is why Ramadan will purge a year’s worth of sins .
The children look forward to this day and will visit and wish relatives Eid Mubarak carrying their wallets and purses because they know that each house they visit will make a small donation to their toys' fund. Monetary gifts are traditionally given to children. The closer the relative the higher the sum.
But these small fortunes last less than a day because at the end of each street there is a table with lots of cheap toys designed for their limited budgets, and as much as the little ones resist, they always empty their little purses at these tables.
It is only at sunset that Ramadan’s absence fully registers and the evenings that were full of activity are silent and hold no prospect but sleep.
Yes Ramadan will be sorely missed until it arrives again next year.
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A Libyan Eid Eid Elfitr is the celebration that occurs after a month of fasting and the translation is the breaking of the fast celebration. The feast itself starts with a very early Eid prayer in the Mosque. Chanting in mosques of (Allahhuakbar Wa Lilah Alhamd) God is great and praise is to Allah will echo all over Libya, indeed all over the Muslim world.
Thriving Libyan Community in North London Enjoys Ramadan Every Saturday during Ramadan London’s Libyan community has been hiring the Pakistani mosque and community centre in Willesden Green, North London for iftar, prayers and meetings. The young men enjoy a game of table tennis before and after prayers while the older men joked as they sat outside the prayer room on the warm summer evening.
