Eid 2011 how long

I went out early morning of Eid to see if people would be able to pray freely outdoors following the Sun-nah after the revolution, and I was happy seeing people do so. For me, I spend some time with my family at home chatting and have the first meal together, then go visit family and friends.

Celebrations are short for me because I'm an activist in a watchdog organisation and we are just one month away from the elections. So back to work in the afternoon. I've seen people everywhere going more than ever to the mosques without fear of religious persecution, flags of Tunisia and Libya everywhere and big numbers of Libyans in the entertainment centres sharing the blessing of the Eid with everyone.

I was really proud of all that happened starting from Tunisia and all over the Arab world. I can now wear what I want and look the way I like without fear of being called extremist or thrown in jail. People now are proud more than ever of being Arab, and it's really a pride for me that it started from my small, unknown country. Even though we feel sorry about what's happening in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain this day is so sacred especially for innocent children who need some fun after a long struggle and curfew.

People are certainly celebrating Eid this year. The shops are shut and the streets are quiet throughout most of the day. This is in sharp contrast to Ramadan when street life and commerce continued pretty much as normal.

Young guys and girls, the shabab, strut around during the cool afternoons, dressed in their finest clothes, chatting and flirting. People's doorbells in my neighbourhood are busy ringing throughout the day as friends and relatives visit each other. Kids run around with their new toys - toy guns are a particular favourite - no, it's not a sign of the times! They were just as popular last year.

I was in Damascus last year for Eid and can't tell much difference. I spoke with a young protester who is very active in the movement, as well as a devout Muslim. He said that he would be observing Eid but acknowledged that it would be a muted celebration this year.

I am celebrating Eid, as always! The prayer time was scheduled by the imam not only based on the Islamic doctrines, but also on the experiences of the previous years and for reasons of convenience.

Gdong tse zur lam; Chin. Dongzisulu no. Jiri banshichu of the Chengguan District Government. It was initially built in the 10 th century and was expanded twice, in and During the Tibetan rebellion 16 of March , the main hall of Lhasa Great Mosque and its historical tablets were burnt down by Tibetans Only in was Lhasa Great Mosque restored to its original purpose and the local government also allocated funds for the maintenance of the mosque.

Furthermore, in , the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government and the Lhasa Municipal Government each provided yuan for rebuilding and expanding the mosque. Photo 2. Outline of Lhasa Great Mosque , Photo 3. Northern entrance of Lhasa Great Mosque.

The northern mosque entrance is styled as a tripartite arch with four columns Photo 3. The upper part of this gate has a gable roof with its eaves decorated in Tibetan style patterns and designs Bai , pp. The official name of the mosque, i. To the right of the mosque is a two-storey building. The rooms on the first floor are used as shops and those on the second floor as the reception room of the mosque management committee.

The prayer hall is a three-storey building laid out in an east-westerly direction, topped by a green dome roof with a crescent and with two minarets on each side. The floor of the hall is made of wooden boards covered with prayer rugs. The mihrab is beautifully decorated with golden twisted lotuses and engraved with white-lettered Quran verses written on a green background in order to provide a magnificent, solemn and respect-demanding impression.

In the left recess of the mihrab we find a raised pulpit the minbar , from which the imam addresses the congregation The cabinet, which holds Islamic scriptures and hi-fi equipment, is located in the recess to the right. On both sides of the mihrab hang large paintings of the Kaaba of Mecca, painted by local Muslim artists. A certain part of the second floor of the prayer hall is reserved for women praying during Ramadan.

To the south of the classrooms are a kitchen and a canteen, a storage room and an office to the east. Photo 4. Therefore, when the prayer hall is full, many adherents have to perform prayers in the yard Photo 5 , where sunshades, rugs and straw mats will be pre-arranged by the management committee.

In the case of rain, the classrooms for the pre-school education will be opened for praying. Photo 5. Yard of Lhasa Great Mosque during Eid prayer. Dog sde shang; Chin. Duodixiang in the northern suburb of Lhasa.

In general, Lhasa Muslims of inland origins are buried there, but due to the increasing number of migrant Muslims doing business in Tibet, some of those migrants are interred there as well.

Covering a total area of 64 sqm, it is m wide from east to west and m long from north to south. To the west of the cemetery is a mountain and on the other three sides, the cemetery is surrounded by walls.

The Tibetan-style gate faces east and has two pointed minarets on both sides Photo 6. The houses of the cemetery keepers and the cemetery prayer hall are both inside the gate on the cemetery ground. Poplars, wild peach trees, hawthorns , willows and green lawns can be seen there.

Currently, there are still sixteen Qing Dynasty tombs and one of the Chinese Republican Era These monumental graves are erected in the traditional Chinese style, in which the upper parts of the stone tablets are rounded Xizang zizhiqu wenwu , pp. Facing east, the prayer hall of the graveyard covers an area of more than sqm. It consists of a hall, a hallway, guest rooms, a shower room and a yard.

All the buildings are decorated in a mixed Tibetan and Islamic style. The entrance of the prayer hall faces east and the wooden floors are covered with prayer rugs. As in the Great Mosque of Lhasa, a mihrab is placed in the center of the western wall and tapestries depicting the Kaaba of Mecca hang on both sides. The pavilion-shaped minbar is located on the upper left side of the mihrab.

Photo 6. There, a row of Tibetan style houses with flat rooftops is used for the gatekeepers. These offer a wide range of products such as halal meat and other food stuffs , general Muslim supplies, tea, and caterpillar fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Furthermore, there are facilities such as halal restaurants, public shower rooms, dry cleaning, and so on. With the gradual growth of Muslim businesses now offering all kinds of commodities, Muslim life in Lhasa has become more convenient.

During Ramadan, Muslims run dozens of halal food stands at the mosque gate, opening after 5 pm and mainly selling various snacks and fruit. The snacks are mostly of northwestern Chinese cuisine and include various kinds of cooked, barbecued, boiled and pickled food, but also cold noodles and twists of fried dough sanzi.

The customers are mostly Muslim visitors to the mosque who wait for fast-breaking, but also Buddhist Tibetans living nearby. The architectural style and the interior decorations of Muslim homes in Lhasa are almost the same as those of Tibetan Buddhists. In line w ith recent economic development in Tibet , t he income of Lhasa Muslims living in the Wapaling and Telpungang districts has increased and they often rent out premises to migrant Muslims.

Migrant Muslim s living in Wap alin g can convenient ly pursue both r eligious activities and daily life. In the past five years, many Lhasa Muslims have refurbished or rebuilt their houses, which are mostly three or four-storey Tibetan-style buildings.

Although interior decoration and furniture are similar to the homes of Tibetan Buddhists, a Buddhist altar and Buddhist scrolls thang ka are missing; instead, tapestries of the Kaaba of Mecca or Arabic calligraphy will decorate the walls. Along with social development and increases in income, fashionable modern furniture is gradually entering the homes of the Lhasa Muslims. Although cleaning is a daily routine for them, with the advent of Eid, every Muslim household will take extra care to clean the house and to tidy up the rooms.

The yard and the gateway will be swept and everything will be put in order. T he t wo communities were always managed independently of each other. This practice is similar for most inland mosques in China. Similar to the Muslim council of elders Chin. All the other ones of Lhasa Great Mosque then elected a board member in-charge. Immediately below them in rank were two team leaders Chin. The establishment of the council of elders xianglao hui had to be approved by the former Tibetan Department of Agriculture 25 Tib.

So nam las khungs; Chin. The community-elders who led the xianglao , the xianglao -in-charge, usually served for three years but could continue their service when agreed upon. According to i nscriptions on wooden boards of the mosque that were burnt in , some other posts like house manager, storage manager, oxtail manager 26 , deacon and general dispatcher existed as well Xue , pp. This suggests that the council of elders had a complete internal administration and a specific division of work.

According to Ma Wenzhong 27 , the two team-leaders served under the xianglao -in-charge and were only responsible for specific affairs of the association. This opinion is shared by most Chinese scholars. Xue, however, argues that the team-leaders operated outside of the council of elders, i. He maintains that although the baozheng were recommended by the local Muslim community, they were appointed by and under the direction of local Tibetan authorities.

For example, whenever the Dalai Lama proceeded to the Summer Palace and to the Jokhang Temple, the two team-leaders would be in his retinue riding horses and wearing Chinese style clothes. When a dispute arose between Muslims, the team-leaders had the right to mediate and to handle the case.

The dispute would only be reported to the Tibetan government when the team-leaders could not solve it Xue , pp. Regrettably, Xue does not mention the relationship between the team leaders baozheng and the council of elders xianglao hui. Based on my fieldwork and interviews, I suggest that the xianglao association was an autonomous Muslim institution in charge of the secular affairs of the mosque headed by the xianglao -in-charge, whereas the baozheng held lower management offices in the Tibetan government.

Though both had similar management functions and one person could be both a council elder xianglao and a team leader baozheng at the same time, the entities that endowed them with management power were different. This fundamental difference needs to be clearly noted.

He was responsible for reading the sermon khutbah during the congregational Friday jumah prayer. In addition, there were a fourth and a fifth master, who were in charge of slaughtering sheep and yaks and of managing the shower room Xue , pp.

This term soon became a popular form of address for the imams of the mosques. Lhasa Great Mosque also underwent this transition. According to the field research I conducted, the 10 th DMC had 9 members whose term of service ran from May to May There was one director, one deputy director, one accountant, one cashier, two managers for the premises, two for logistics and one for vehicles.

The leading imam of the mosque was ahong Yakub supported by nine other ahong s The income of the mosque mainly derived from donations Arab. The major expenditures comprised the allowances of the ahongs , expenses for secular activities and the costs for water, electricity, gas and office materials. While the mosque teacher ahong is responsible for carrying out specific religious activities such as holding and leading the Eid prayers, the DMC is in charge of general preparation and organization of secular activities.

It also receives local government officials who offer greetings. Since the Lhasa Muslims have a tradition of breaking fast collectively in the mosque, the preparation of the collective fast-breaking meals is the principal work of the DMC during Ramadan. Before Ramadan, the DMC will calculate and set the prices for the Ramadan meals for the current year. The DMC purchased rice, mutton, beef, butter, potentilla tubers, sugar, and so on as required. Simultaneously, the DMC recorded and published the donations niyyah accepted during Ramadan see Photo 9.

Photo 7. Ginseng pilaf. Photo 8. Photo 9. Ramadan niyyah announcement. In , the salary was yuan plus free meals. Some of these assistants had already worked for the mosque for many years and were well acquainted with their jobs as assistants.

In the morning, they always cleaned the kitchen and swept the yard, washed rice and potentilla tubers , melted butter, cooked the pilaf and boiled mutton and beef. In , when Ramadan took place during the summer vacation , t he pre-school classrooms had to be emptied as well for performing prayers and for having fast-breaking meals.

At the end of Ramadan, the assistants put the cleaned utensils into storage and swept the premises. When the pilaf is ready, they obtain it in exchange for the coupons. The assistants place the pilaf on enamel plates of 30 cm in diameter they cover with a second plate. The customers then wrap the plates up in square pieces of cloth to facilitate transport of the dish.

If the sponsor wants some orders to be given away for free, he is supposed to tell the DMC in advance. At around 7 pm every day, Muslims who wish to receive a free meal queue outside the office and the assistants hand them the meals in snack boxes. In order to guarantee a meal for each person who wants one, the maximum quantity of meals per night and per person was two.

The food varies according to the requirements of the different sponsors. Some sponsors have some of the meals prepared by their female family members. These are usually accepted with pleasure but not eaten before the time of breaking fast.

During Ramadan, Muslims can break the fast collectively in the mosque or individually at home. However, only Muslim men go to the mosque to break their fast. Every day during Ramadan usually for twenty-eight days , the prepared food and drinks are put on the table before the time of fast-breaking and then, at fast-breaking, everyone has his share. Respected elderly people have their meals served in the office on the second floor of the storage building.

The DMC members , the mosque teachers ahongs , native Lhasa Muslims, migra n t Muslims and children all ha ve their specific places to take their meals, either in the offices or in the classrooms. Two or three minutes later, the maghrib prayer 33 is performed on the prayer rugs or mats.

Only after do the believers finish their meals and go home. On the very day of Eid, the DMC members come to the mosque early before the Eid prayer to arrange everything. They open the reception room and check if butter ed tea, sweet milk tea, fruit and twists of fried dough sanzi are ready for the local officials: members of the Tibetan Regional Administration for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, the Lhasa Bureau for Religious and Ethnic Affairs and the Chengguan District Bureau for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, who come to the mosque after the Eid prayer and extend their Eid greetings to the assembled Muslims.

After receiving the officials, the DMC members go back home and have a family meal. The gatekeepers prepare buttered tea, sweet milk tea and refreshments for the DMC members. These activities are all shaped by Islamic rules and traditions, but reflect typical characteristics of the Lhasa Muslims, whose customs are somewhat different from those of the Muslims in other parts of China, as described below.

Many Muslims had arrived early and most of them wore white round caps and modern Chinese style clothes. Those Muslims who had already performed their ablutions went directly into the prayer hall to wait for the prayer. Those who had not yet performed their ablutions waited for their turn to enter the shower room.

Only men performed Eid Prayer at the mosque while the women prepared Eid meals at home. In contrast to the custom of Muslims from inland China of burning incense, Lhasa Muslims never burn incense in religious events, but only use incense for hygienic purposes. When it was the time for the Eid Prayer, Imam Yakub went into the prayer hall, knelt in front of the semicircular niche mihrab and started to read from the Quran. Thereafter, he led the Muslims inside and outside the prayer hall to perform the actual Eid Prayer and then stepped onto the pulpit minbar to read the sermon khutbah in Arabic.

The whole Eid event in the mosque lasted for about half an hour. Housewives usually buy twists of fried dough sanzi , beef, mutton, vegetables and groceries in advance. Although, with the changes of modern food tastes, traditional refreshments like fried sanzi are rarely eaten, they are still placed on the table. The main dish usually consists of variations of beef noodles, for example, with cooked celery, sorghum, Chinese cabbage or potatoes, or with cold beef slices, preserved duck eggs and cucumbers.

These beef noodle dishes are all quite light in taste. As for fruits, these include apples, peaches, grapes and bananas. When the men return home from Eid Prayer, the Muslim families enjoy a solid meal together in a joyful and peaceful ambiance. After the main meal, refreshments like the sanzi and fruits will be placed on the table again. This first family meal after Eid is usually finished rather quickly.

Thereafter, the Muslim men will visit relatives and friends to exchange Eid greetings. Therefore, on special occasions such as Friday jumah or Eid Prayer, birthdays, death anniversaries or holidays, most Muslims, either individually or with their families or friends , visit the graveyard and read chapters surah of the Quran. In Lhasa, Muslim men will visit the Muslim cemetery in the northern suburb after the Eid meal. Some will go together with the whole family, but only men who wear a white cap are allowed to enter the cemetery according to Muslim practice, while the women, although wearing veils hijab , have to wait outside.

They embody an important cultural factor that contributes not only to the festival ambiance, but also displays their Muslim ethno-religious identity and strengthens their ethno-religious community. Now it has even become an important part of Tibetan dietary culture. Lug tshan g za khang. In addition, there were Muslim teahouses serving sweet milk tea, snack bars, refreshment shops and so on. Nowadays, the Muslims in Lhasa mainly run teahouses, restaurants and eateries specializing in steamed buns , fried potato es and farinaceous food.

In general, Muslims also eat fish, seafood and poultry while traditional Tibetans usually do not. Typical festival food of the Lhasa Muslims also includes the above-mentioned pilaf , which is mostly prepared and distributed or sold by the mosque, and the twists of fried dough sanzi , which are mostly sold in the markets.

I n the first half of the 20 th century, Muslim families in Tibet would generally prepare some sanzi and fried food during the festival. I t is said that t he sanzi of the Lhasa Muslims were much thinner than those sold by the Muslims from Qinghai and Gansu provinces now.

However, the oil cakes, which are very popular in inland China during Muslim festivals, are not seen in Lhasa markets during Ramadan and Eid.

Instead, the local Muslims once sold snacks like piriny , sowany and helao. For Muslims, Eid al-Fitr is a very important festival, therefore at Eid, Muslims must perform a major ablution ghusl and wear clean and proper clothes.