Afghans celebrate two Eids each year. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and is celebrated over three days. Eid al-Adha, or Eid-e Qurban, recalls the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son; families who can afford it sacrifice a sheep or another animal and share the meat.
Preparations start well ahead. Houses are cleaned from top to bottom, and bazaars fill with shoppers buying new clothes and shoes, sweets and fruit. On the first morning people attend the special Eid prayer, then greet one another with ‘Eid Mubarak’, or in Pashto Akhtar mo mubarak sha.
Then come the visits. Families call on relatives, elders and friends, and old quarrels are meant to be forgiven. Elders give children money and gifts, and girls and women decorate their hands with henna. Tables are laid with dried and fresh fruit and homemade sweets; in many provinces women still bake cakes, kulcha and the fried pastry gosh-e fil, recipes handed down from mother to daughter.