Having been incommunicado since the beginning of September, which included finishing up a boatload of work before the holidays, flying off to beautiful Turkey for three days with the 7iber gang, and then getting stuck in the holiday mode – I missed the usually Eid greeting post. So Eid mubarak to all the readers!
It was a rather quiet Eid despite it taking place during the summer, but Hajjaj seems to have visually documented pretty well what Eid has come to represent in Jordan these days: typical social customs and, of course, poverty. Even Abu Mahjoob has been wearing patched up clothes lately. What is perhaps ironic about occasions like Eid, is that despite one of their purposes being the intention to bring people together and create a sense of unity, and moreover, social equality – it now represents an opportunity to showcase the contrast between the have and the have nots. Those who can afford to buy their kids new clothes, and those who cannot. Those who can host large feasts, and those who cannot. There was perhaps a time, pre financial crisis, when the assumption was simply that this state of affairs was somewhat temporary in nature, but now it just seems to be the new status quo.
And that’s the optimist in me.
Eid mubarak!
شكراً و كل عام وأنت سالم