Mabruke Al Mawluade

Tonight is the eve ( Mozum) of the Mawluade , which is tomorrow. Mawluade is the celebration of the Muslim prophet Mohammed's birthday . The orthodox Muslims don't celebrate this day as the Prophet Mohammed said they were not to celebrate any days but the two Eids and the Friday prayers .

But here in Libya most family's get together this night to have a special dinner. Then afterwards the little boy's carry a large lite candle to symbolize the light of Islam brought into the world with the Prophet Mohammed's birth , little girls carry a large candelabra shaped like a hand called The Hand of Fatima that has candles on the ends of the finger tips , after the Prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima . The children usually will have firecrackers to set off after it gets dark to make a loud celebratory noise much like America's 4th of July . There might be singing and dancing too . Of course there will be sweet tea after wards served with many sweets to make it a true occasion!

Each family is in charge of their own fireworks and it can get pretty competitive to see who has the most , the loudest , and can set off more than the others all at the same time . Some years you would think it is a war going on outside !The days leading up to the Mawluade and for several weeks after the Mawluade you can still hear those things going off at odd times of the day or night . I don't like this part of the celebrations because I think it is way too dangerous for children to be playing with fireworks , but every year I would be out voted !

There is the fairly recent addition of the TREE . Sometimes you will find a tree , what Christians would think of as a Christmas tree , set up in a living room . A man will present one of these trees to his newly engaged fiancee along with a complete dress outfit , with jewelry too ! Lucky girl ! This tree will be artificial , but today when Moe and I were out shopping in one of the new mini malls that have started to sprouted up around Tripoli , I saw this real tree decorated as a Mawlaude Tree . As I was taking a picture of the tree to show you , a young man came up and wanted to pose with the tree in the picture . I told him I was posting it on my blog , because people here are so funny about having their pictures taken . He got so excited ! He began to run around everywhere shouting I am going to be on a blog !!! I wonder if he knew what a blog was .

Of course all of this is strictly not religiously acceptable . The time should be spent in prayer. The next day , the actual day of the Mawluade , it is business as usual , as everyone goes about their normal day . Some years the schools and the government offices are closed .

On the way home we drove by one of the main markets in town and I had forgotten by this time that this would be a big mistake , since this is one of the area's where fireworks , cheap toy's , drums, candles , and the tree's are sold . It took us an hour to drive one short block . I would have taken pictures but the traffic demanded my full attention ! Here is wishing all of you who celebrate, a very nice Mawluade .

A Special Present

Moe's birthday is the day before Valentines Day . He used to remember Valentines Day every year by giving the kids and I a box of candy each , sometimes flowers or something personal for me. Many times we would go out for dinner and dancing . It was all very romantic and it also served to redeem his lack of memory when it came to anniversary's , birthdays ,holidays , and other special days . I would tease him and say he only remembered it because it came the day AFTER his birthday . He would smile his " I am a devil and you love it " smile never denying the charges .

That was when we lived in the States . We moved back to Libya in 1990 . The dances and dinners no longer where celebrated by outings to restaurants or clubs . We cooked dinners at home and danced around in the living room to the radio/ cassette player we managed to "borrow" from my brother in law . There were no clubs and restaurant's were so exorbitantly over priced we never thought about going out . Candy was a faint memory as it was on the embargo list for some weird reason known only to governments . If you did find candy back in the 1990's it was usually way over priced and well beyond it's pass due date, not something affordable for a family of 6, nor desirable either .

Then as the sanctions were lightened up here and consumer goods were allowed to enter the country things became available to some degree , but still too expensive . About that time my husband became ill and was unable to work because of his heart .I worked and my lovely daughters worked . We got by , things looked up .

Slowly but surely we started to rebuild our lives after we lost our home here in Tripoli to a new road that was being built . They came to knock down our house one day , wanted us to move out of a 3,ooo sq, ft. house with 5 bedrooms , 2 living rooms , 2 large entry rooms , a huge kitchen , with a dinning room , 2 baths , and 3 storage rooms , into a 2 bedroom apartment in 2 days ! Just imagine ! Somehow and not without a lot of hard work on my daughters part , did we manage to do this .

Then my husband had a major stroke . We thought he would die . It took many months of long hard hours of rehabilitating physiotherapy for Moe to return to some normalcy . He had a second stroke 2 years later . He again had to re-enter the world of physiotherapy because this time he had been partly paralyzed on the right side. His memory never returned to what it used to be , although he has continued to make great strides towards improvement even now . So forgotten birthdays , anniversary's , and Valentines Days are the norm , never given any special thought .This year he remembered Valentines Day all on his own . He came to me and said he had a present for me . He gave me a big kiss , he said it was to celebrate Valentines Day . The loveliest kiss I ever had ,the best present of all !