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Winter 2015

Celebration

Ramadan Kareem on blue background

Lesser Bairam is one of two annual Muslim festivals, Greater Bairam and Lesser Bairam and about 1.5 billion people over the world celebrate these religious occasions once a year.

The Lesser Bairam comes after a month of fasting, called Ramadan. The fasting starts from early morning until evening without eating and drinking, so it is a great occasion to look forward to celebrating, especially when Ramadan comes in the summer when the days are long and fasting is about 18 hours long.

Although most children don’t usually fast, they are the happiest group in the community during the Lesser Bairam, because there are many special activities for them and they get more chances to play and have fun.

For the adults, the Lesser Bairam is a celebration after a month of worship and hard fasting, and it’s a chance to get some rest and happiness in meeting with relatives and friends. Sometimes the Bairam may be an occasion to solve many problems (circumstances) between relatives and friends or neighbours (recover the relationships in the community). Sometimes during the meetings at the mosque, where the most members of the community gather, there may be some important decisions about the community or some traditions that need to be modified, to be more familiar and in accordance with the development of all aspects of life.

The holiday for Bairam is 3 to 5 days long, so it’s a chance for the people to discuss some issues related to the political life in a very private setting, because the dictatorship systems never allow people to discuss or speak about political issues.

Over the long humanity history, people always look for occasions to celebrate, which is important for the needs of human life to get over being upset, work stress and fill in their souls with hope and happiness. Therefore, it is important to have private occasions to have fun and be happy either through some celebrations, which are related to societal occasions and/or occasions related to religious culture.