Sighing Going On Here !

 

Life in the Condo On The Seaside is gearing up for the big FIRE CRACKER NIGHT,  or otherwise known in this part of the world as The Malude . Mohamed's birthday , no, not Moe , but the OTHER Mohamed , the Prophet Mohamed . There are many ways to celebrate the Malude here in Libya and I have already talked about that before , but mainly , the children set off firecrackers of all types , from little sparklers to giant roman candles .It ends up sounding like a war zone before it is all over with .


I heard that this year it will be on Wednesday night.It starts around sunset and goes on until the kids run out of things to blow up .Many years the fire works are on sell well before the actual day and children take advantage of this and buy as many as possible days ahead of time to stock pile them for the night of Malude . But , as with most kids , temptation gets the best of them and you can hear the BOOM and POW of the firecrackers days before the event ! Poor Patches La Chat is in a nervous state and runs to hide at the least little noise now .She is even jumping in her sleep , poor baby .

My Internet time ran out this past week .I really hate when that happenes ! It means I have to get dressed in street clothes , do my hair , SIGHING GOING ON HERE ,put on sort of make up ( I hate to wear any) ,go down ALL THOSE STAIRS , dust the car off ( it has been miserabley dusty and windy all this past week ), drive to the store that sells the cards for the Internet in my neighborhood ,make chit chat with the guy , who is actually a very nice young man , and THEN that leads to going to the grocery store next door where there is ... CHOCOLATE !!! My downfall . I give in to my weakness and buy CHOCOLATE , but do I stop there ???? OH NO ..... I buy CHIPS too . I like the salty taste and then I need will something sweet to take away the salty taste , right ? Then after that I will need something that isn't too sweet or too salty , so search for the perfect food , which does not exsit ! So , by now I have spent well over the amount of money that Moe is happy with going out of his perfectly planned budget, which means he will be very unhappy when he finds out . SIGHING ALL OVER THE PLACE NOW !!!!!!!!!!! What to do ? Stay home .And people always ask me why I stay home all the time !

Islamic New Years

It is the Islamic New Years today, Dec.18th, 2009; or in the Muslim calendar ... Muharram 1,1431 A.H.. It is not really celebrated as the other Islamic holidays, such as the two Eids .

As stated in the infoplease.com  web site...  "The Islamic New Year:
The month of Muharram marks the beginning of the Islamic liturgical year. The Islamic year begins on the first day of Muharram, and is counted from the year of the Hegira (anno Hegirae) the year in which Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina (A.D. July 16, 622).
The Islamic new year is celebrated relatively quietly, with prayers and readings and reflection upon the hegira."
Here is what Wikpedi has to say about the New Year of the Islamic calendar .In Libya it isn't an official holiday , therefore it passes quietly . Some family's have a dinner together , others pray at the mosque .

The Day Of Ashura is another important Islamic day . This year it will come on December 27, 2009 . Ashura falls on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. For Sunnis, Ashura commemorates the exodus of Moses from Egypt, and is usually observed by completing an optional fast as practiced by the Prophet Muhammad. For Shias it marks the tragic anniversary of the death of the Prophet's grandson, Husain at the hands of Ummayyad ruler, Yazid. The day is marked with mourning and even enactments of the tragic event and fasting .

New Years And Other Celebrations

It is New Years Eve of 2008 . I honestly can not believe that tomorrow will be the beginning of 2009 . Really . I can remember when Prince's song 1999 came out in the 1980's and we were all thinking , yeah right that will never come . It was too far into the future to imagine as a reality for most of us way back then . And now it is 2009 .New years Eve and New Years Day is celebrated around the world by most people tonight and tomorrow . New Years Eve being the last day of the month December in the Gregorian calendar year , with the New Years Day being the beginning of the month January , in a new Gregorian calendar year.

The Islamic New Years is celebrated on the 1st day of the 1st month of Muharram in a moon cycle based calendar year that has 12 months also . This year , according to the moons cycle , the 1 st. day of the month of Muharram , in the Islamic year of 1430 Hijrah , the Islamic New Years fell on Dec. 29 , 2008 of the Gregorian calendar . It is not celebrated as New Years is in the Western countries, by most Muslims , but rather in quit prayers and family gatherings , maybe . Sad to say in all my years here in Libya I have never seen this day being celebrated either in prayer or as a family gathering . Maybe that is just my experience but I don't think so . It is the observance of the Prophet Mohamed's migration from Mecca to Medina .This picture says in Arabic Peace and Love which is a good beginning for a new year huh?

Then there is the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa that always starts on Dec.26th and accumulates into a week long celebration to Jan. 1 st of the New Year . The word Kwanzaa is Swahili for 1st fruits . It is a holiday who's tradition was started in 1966 by Ron Karenga , a social activist for the African Americans and a scholar . This holiday has even had a special stamp designed for it by the U.S.A. postal department .As I grew up my mother had special observances we kept . One was on New Years Eve Day we cleaned the entire house from top to bottom . Nothing was allowed to slide in the cleanness department with my mother on that day . After the house was nice and spotlessly clean , she threw away all our cleaning tools , like the mop and broom , replacing them with new ones . This was so we could start our New Years off with a clean beginning .

We ate on New Years Day black eyed peas , corn bread ,any greens , like collared greens or mustard greens , usually a vegetable soup of some sort to go with it all . This was to remind us that being humble , living simply was healthy and would be enriching for the soul .

I have tried to carry on these simple traditions with my children also . Handing them down to my children as my mothers mother handed them down to her and she to my sisters and I . I wonder did my great grandmother receive them from her mother too ? I won't be able to do the house cleaning part this year but will definitely be doing the cooking part . I love black eyed peas but haven't found any this year so will substitute them with beans , just as delicious !

I want to wish all of you a very happy , healthy , and extremely prosperous new years for 2009 . If you made any new years resolutions , good luck lol ! Talk to you next year !