Saturday, September 11, 2010

A Feast To End The Fast

Today was Eid. The day that signifies the end of the fasting month of Ramadhaan.

It's been an amazing month of reflection and spirituality, and abstinence from the ordinary and sinful too.
Not that we shouldn't abstain outside of the fasting month, but Ramadhaan just makes us more conscious of this fact.
So I took some time out today to review the Eid festivities, and realised that it takes the average person just one single day to undo all the good that a month of fasting had achieved.

Here's a prime example:
We have a massive breakfast on Eid morning at my home, inviting friends and family to partake of all manner of food and savouries.
This usually starts at around 9am and continues until around 11:30am.
Then we have a breather during which time a change of garments is in order.
Lunch is served at 1:30pm and continues until 3:30pm. This venue changes almost every year, with the only constant being the gaurantee of plenty of good food.
Supper is the grandest of all grand culinary affairs. We head to Benoni to my Aunts place, and by 8pm we're all pretty much elbow deep in every variation of prawn one could possibly imagine! Prawn curry, grilled prawns, braai'd prawn, lemon-butter prawns, peri-peri prawns... You name the prawn, and somebody is bound to be wolfing it down.

It's now almost midnight and I've just arrived back home.
I am so full of prawns I feel like a stuffed prawn sausage.
I will most probably skip all meals tomorrow in order to speed up the recovery process, as is the norm most years for me.

I don't think this is the way the wise men who came before us intended for us to spend the day... but quite frankly I can't walk away from all that good food.
I'll certainly try harder next year, but right now there's some fresh strawberry's dipped in melted Lindt chocolate waiting for me.

nomnomnom....

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