Eid

For me, I think it is a rare thing to be in another country and to have the opportunity to experience something that is quintessential to the personality and fabric of life in that place. I think of it a little bit like looking into a snowglobe; even though you’re not inside of it, not part of it per se, you still get to watch it, still get to see something extraordinary.

Being in Zanzibar for Eid is like that.

At the end of last week it happened to work out perfectly that Ameet, Andrew and I all found ourselves back in Dar and ready to depart to Ameet and Jafari’s house for the holiday weekend. We’d heard Eid was a huge celebration in Zanzibar; we’d heard it was not to be missed; we just hadn’t quite heard when Eid actually was going to happen.

The specific day that marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid celebration is determined by the moon. So while it is a national holiday here in Tanzania, you don’t know exactly when it’s going to be until the day or so before.

Nonetheless, we got on another boat (which is a story in and of itself, but I’ll save that for another time) Saturday and left the sweaty, crowded chaos of Dar for the relaxed, scenic views of Zanzibar. Sitting at an outdoor café on Saturday night inside the Old Fort in Stone Town a red flair suddenly burst through the sky. And just like that, Eid had started.

On Sunday, according to Ameet, Stone Town was much more alive than its normal Ramadan-induced quietness, yet by mid-afternoon the market stalls and shops were closing down and people were heading home to get ready for the celebration. We’d seen a huge set up of what looked like various stalls in a field called Mnazi Mmoja near Jafari and Ameet’s house, but had no real idea of what to expect. Hopping off the dala dala on Sunday night and heading towards the festivities, it seemed like every single person in Stone Town was headed to Mnazi Mmoja (except for all the muzungo tourists, who didn’t seem to realize this was where the party was at).

We walked up to the field and spread out before us was a sea of lights, people, smells, food and music. It was like the State Fair, Eid-style. There were families and kids and games and toys and people selling things all over the place. Large tents with music and a continuous stream of young people coming in and out of them, little children running around with inflatable bananas and fried foods of all varieties.

After walking around a bit and taking it all in, we noticed everyone seemed to have these bowls of soup and so we wandered up to a food stall where they were making it. We didn’t really know what was in the soup, so when they started throwing chopped up potatoes, and crunchy noodles, and a hard boiled egg, and then some cucumbers and salad into a bowl and dowsed it in broth and pepper sauce, we though, “why not?”. Little did we know, were about to be introduced to a little slice of amazing-ness called saroja, a traditional Zanzibarian food. After downing the first bowl, we quickly got back in line for another. And then two more later in the night.

Throughout the rest of the evening we made our way into the central part of Stone Town, down to the Forodahni Gardens, to see more throngs of people, food, and colors and then back to the Old Fort for some live music. Certainly there were tourists out, partaking in the celebration. But you couldn’t escape the sense that despite Zanzibar being a prime tourist destination, Eid was still very thoroughly and very much theirs. Tourists came to enjoy the party, but it wasn’t for them. It belongs to the people of the island and to the Muslim-community who come to Zanzibar t celebrate Eid. We simply got to peer in to witness it, and have some really delicious soup.