Eid celebrations

[Alex50]

I’ve just driven down a road where the local community are celebrating Eid, going into each other’s houses, one terraced house looked like it had 50 people in. My couldn’t how many they could fit in a small area. Are people mumsnet celebrating Eid at the moment?

BTW I also think pubs should enforce 2hr visits and close at 10pm, drunk people can't social distance. And I think there are far too many house parties full stop, no one seems willing to break those up or enforce that either.

@ShootsFruitsAndLeaves

btw I'm not sure about 'Eid being cancelled', but they had that in Indonesia a few months back for the main Eid. Basically it's supposed to be about moon sighting, and the date is proclaimed by the relevant Islamic astronomers. Anyway they said 'sorry no moon', and Eid was cancelled. People were already out in their tens of millions with drums and what not ready to celebrate, and it was cancelled.

Millions of people got diarrhea etc. because of all the meat that had been cooked but then had to be kept another day very often without refrigeration.

So Eid being cancelled is a real thing....

The Eid after Ramadan is dependant on the new moon being sighted to denote the end of Ramadan. If it’s not sighted Ramadan is thirty days long and Eid celebrated the day after being the first of the next month.

Nobody is cooking and expecting it to be Eid, it’s how Eid is marked, cooking usually begins the night the new moon is sighted ime.

This Eid is celebrated on the tenth day of this month and everyone knows when it will be celebrated in advance.

I don’t know anyone who has attended large gatherings. Doesn’t mean there aren’t people who wouldn’t have.

My mother in law (not Muslim), was really angry at a massive party being held by non-Muslim people in the field behind her house at weekend, she said it was a huge party and nobody was social distancing. When she pointed out to one of the mothers there she was told ‘some of us have have negative covid tests’.

but they had that in Indonesia a few months back for the main Eid

I mean a few years ago, not a few months ago!

Realistically if you were told to cancel Christmas.. would you?

Cancelled already. Plans changed months ago. If anyone thinks that this is all going to disappear or magically get better during winter, they are deluded imho.

There are lots of Eid celebrations going on on my street. My my neighbour knocked and invited us in for food. We delclined which was easy as I’m 8 months pregnant.

The street is filed with cars, people in and out of houses.

We did last year because of work commitments and various illnesses. A very teeny tiny celebration.

Yep. Next door have family round in a small terrace as well

Nobody is cooking and expecting it to be Eid, it’s how Eid is marked, cooking usually begins the night the new moon is sighted ime.

Basically you spend a month fasting (which ironically tend to involve richer food than usual), and then on the last day of Ramadan, sundown marks the end of fasting for that day, so you break fast at dusk (around 7pm here).

Then after the dusk and darkness prayers it's usual to celebrate the start of Eid, assuming it has been proclaimed, by banging drums, etc.

The main feasting takes the next day starting with breakfast, and there are various foods which take long cooking and things like chicken, beef would have to have been purchased in advance.

Also though Eid al Adha is nominally the festival of slaughtering cows, there are a lot of cows killed for Eid ul Fitri as well. In fact people might go the rest of the year without any beef at all. The cow slaughter for Eid Al Adha tends to be donated to neighbours, the poor, etc. , whereas for Eid ul Fitri you would buy by the kilogram.

Anyway the food for Eid ul Fitri tends to go on for a few days so there's something there on the second day as well, but IME when you get to the second day it's often 'off', because people tend to leave it in the wok without refrigeration, which isn't ideal in 30C heat.

I'm not really sure about the logistics of it all, but imagine if you had a turkey which expired on Christmas day and you didn't have a fridge and then Christmas was put back a day.

Yes, that's inconvenient.

Realistically if you were told to cancel Christmas.. would you?

Yes I would @BKCRMP. We'd just have a celebration without household and do video calls to parents. I think we would be very selfish if we didn't.

I think the gov should have given more than 3 hours notice (I don’t believe they didn’t know that rates were increasing) Can you imagine if they stopped all gathering on Xmas day at 9.30pm Christmas Eve?

This ^

The short notice is a red herring surely. The rules were only two households allowed to meet or a maximum of six people - so any celebrations with more than that were already not allowed, so short notice or not they shouldn't have been happening

Exactly

Time and time again it's been asked "why would you plan a large event in the middle of a pandemic anyway?" and of course there's been no answer

i guess people make their own risk assessments, knowing Asians are higher risk, that the rules are two households etc, maybe they prioritise their religion over health and are not so concerned about healthcare being overwhelmed? Not sure.

I did read something about Orthodox jews being very relaxed even though higher risk because of their religion. So that could be the case as well.. perhaps

You are not allowed to meet up with anymore than 6 people I thought?

I think the gov should have given more than 3 hours notice (I don’t believe they didn’t know that rates were increasing) Can you imagine if they stopped all gathering on Xmas day at 9.30pm Christmas Eve?

This ^

It has been about two households for ages

If they say ‘it starts tomorrow/next week’ everyone says ‘why then, not now?’. They aren’t doing it for a laugh.

Alex

I believe it's up to 6 for any amount of households

OR

Two households of any number

@BKCRMP

Realistically if you were told to cancel Christmas.. would you?

Yes I would if in a middle of a pandemic

In England, it’s 2 households indoors but they still have to social distance - they can’t all sit together around a dining table, for example.

And up to 6 people from different households outdoors, still socially distanced from members of other households.

Nobody cancelled Eid. They really need to do a much better job of advertising what the actual rules are though.

But everyone knew - my family up in the hotspot didn’t plan any Eid celebrations and have been avoiding each other like the plague (and they are big on family gatherings).

@SiennaSienna

I cannot be bothered to check but I wonder if OP posted similar when people were celebrating VE day in the streets mid-lockdown or when people started filling overcrowded beaches as soon as the weather got hot. Or is it maybe this particular part of society that is under extra scrutiny? hm.

Doesn't really matter if it happens outside, as long as social distancing can be maintained , same situation as the BLM protests as well, which you didn't mention. It's indoor gatherings which are particularly risky. That is what the OP is referring to.

I find it unbelievable that people are moaning about the notice given. I’m in Greater Manchester and I had lots of plans this weekend which have been cancelled but I would rather the government reacted quickly than procrastinate.

They initially locked down far too late and too many lives were lost because of it. This virus is not going anytime soon and we have to be able to respond to hotspots accordingly.

avoiding each other like the plague

is that because of the plague?

Yes I thought that was rather apt.

I simply don’t understand this “What if they “cancelled” (imposed lockdown) Christmas on Christmas Eve?” argument.

PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN PLANNING LARGE GATHERINGS. If they’d had two ounces of common sense they’d not have had big meet-ups arranged and wasted food etc.

It’s not as if we haven’t had a slight hint that things have been a bit, well, different these past few months, so if Christmas gatherings were prohibited I wouldn’t be in the least surprised. And I could still eat my turkey dinner and open presents - just not with a big gang of relatives. No one can “cancel” Christmas.

People were planning weddings of up to 30 people
and there are large gatherings in pub
Also a lot more than 6 people in a gym

So I can understand why people would plan religious celebrations too.

It was right to impose restrictions, but they wouldn't have gone from things being Ok to NOK within a few hours;
The government probably dithered for several days - as they've done before - instead of giving people adequate notice

Notice is important, because if someone has guests travelling, if they've spent hundreds of quid on the best food,
then it's likely that some will just continue

Some may not even have heard;
the news came so late - not everyone watches late night or early morning news, just maybe the evening news

A lot of people are doing the maximum allowed, such as holidays and pubs, rather than staying home.
BJ has been encouraging people to go out and spend, which is often something people do in, or for, large groups.

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