Caribbean: Celebrating Eid  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Eid Mubarak!  Muslims across the world are today celebrating Eid ul-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting – and the Caribbean is no exception.  A few bloggers were at their computers bright and early to mark the occasion…
Lily, from Trinidad and Tobago, was excited at the sighting of the moon, while Chennette is celebrating Eid in neighbouring Guyana:
It’s officially ‘Id ul Fitr, the end of Ramadan and one of the 2 Eids/celebrations for Muslims. Eid Mubarak everyone!
Simply Trini Cooking is glad for another public holiday to “stay home and relax” – the irony is, he's busy in the kitchen, whipping up some Sawine, which he describes as “not a drink yet we slurp it down in cups, but then it's not even porridge because it has vermicelli in it. Confusing as it may seem, this is one sweet delicacy I look forward to every Eid.”  For anyone who wants to try it, he posts a helpful recipe.
Fellow blogger Coffeewallah notes that in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society like Trinidad and Tobago, holidays like this are the norm, but she is saddened by the circumstances surrounding her family's celebration of the occasion:
Given that I am of mixed heritage, today actually constitutes a religious holiday for my mother's family, so I get to go “home” and make nice with the relatives.  My granny is probably slaving away over a hot stove while I write; this prior to heading off to the mosque where she'll meet up with her fellow survivors, she's 84, her friends are dying off, before heading back home for another round of quick kitchen activity.  Since my mother is dead and she has no more daughters…I'm it. Her company while she cooks, reluctant sous chef, because I cannot do it the way she wants, my cooking style is very different. I'm not resentful, just too tired. My female cousins are notably absent, and this is hard for her to take, she who is used to large families and lots of people, whose family gatherings have now shrunk…
We, those of us left, will briefly congregate in the kitchen, to eat together before jumping up to go where ever else. I feel sad for her, this is not what she envisaged. Where are the eight children that she raised, where are the grandchildren and where are her great grandchildren? No childish voices raised, nobody running underfoot, no hive of activity, instead we have scattered all over, been visited by death and divorce. Today she will have a heading to middle aged, unmarried childless granddaughter, itching to get back home to catch a few z's before work tomorrow; phone calls from my uncle, brothers and cousin living abroad, her friends who didn't make it out and her surviving sisters. And she will be happy, even for this.
So for her, may I wish all of you, Eid Murabak, take the time out to enjoy your life, enjoy your family, be happy.