Preparations for Sallah

The clothes to wear to Eid, visiting relatives or inviting them to come over, all need planning.“Where are they, where are my wrappers?” A lady asked a tailor furiously on my recent visit to a tailoring shop.“It’s been over a month since I gave you these wrappers and you have done absolutely nothing to them. […]

The clothes to wear to Eid, visiting relatives or inviting them to come over, all need planning.
“Where are they, where are my wrappers?” A lady asked a tailor furiously on my recent visit to a tailoring shop.
“It’s been over a month since I gave you these wrappers and you have done absolutely nothing to them. Give them to me, I do not wish to sew them anymore,” she screamed.
“Haba aunty! Work has been overwhelming these past few weeks but I promise I will work on them. You will get them on Saturday, God willing,” he replied.
“What?Just never mind. I do not want to sew them anymore.”
“Aunty !!,”he pleaded
“Ah this tailor wants to disappoint me after I have stocked my fridge with turkey, beef and catfish for pepper soup. The other ingredients I will get a day before because the fresher the better. As much as I do not want to be anywhere near a market a day before Eid, this cannot be helped,” she said downcast.
 Such exchanges are common as people plan for Sallah. The best thing however is to  always have a backup plan incase clothes or food deliveries fail.
During the last few days of Ramadan, each Muslim family that can afford it gives Zakkat-il Fitr. It is a determined amount given as donation to the poor. This donation is of actual food — rice, millet, beans to mention a few or money equivalent to ensure that the needy too can have something to celebrate with.
Zainab Katung a housewife explains to The Home Front that she sometimes buys food items from the market to fulfill their Zakkat obligations but this year she will be taking from what she has in store at home because she has surplus.
She said she starts planning a month prior to the Ramadan for the clothes she and her family will wear for the festivities.
“Because the tailors are usually booked before hand, I make sure I buy the materials and take to them there before they start complaining of too much work.Yesterday he called and asked me to come and get them and then further asked me to comeback in two days time for that of my husband’s because of the design he wanted to add to it,” she added.
Ummu Hanan, another housewife says for her Sallah is all about celebration and being happy. She adds that it is a time for eating, merriment and visitations.
“We go to market a few days before Sallah to get the ingredients for the delicacies, and we share food with our neighbors and friend,” she said.
She further stated that they usually have family and friends who come visiting on Sallah day, distributes gifts (especially to children), and also make phone calls to distant relatives to give and wish them well for the holidays.
 Yakubu Muhammad  another respondent said that the period is a time of celebration when family and friends are expected to come visiting and as usual he tidies up the house and further decorates it with colourful Arabian mats.
“We usually expect visitors to come and so we bring down the curtains wash and iron them, trim the grasses, mop the floors and  ensure everything is clean,” he said.
He further stated that “preparation for food and drinks is in full gear as it’s a celebration of food and drinks”.
The Home Front also met a seamstress, Fatima Usman who noted that tailors are usually known to disappoint during festive periods because they are overwhelmed by so much work that they cannot meet up to the supposed date they give to their customers.
“I usually don’t accept materials from customers as a policy about two weeks to the festive date so that I can meet up with the date I had promised my earlier customers”.
But a sociology student of the University of Abuja, Maryam Alkali says she doesn’t like taking her clothes for sewing except when it is a few weeks to Eid as the tailors wouldn’t have her exact measurement because of the month long fast.
“I have been fasting since the month started and have shed a little weight, if I had taken the clothes to the tailor at the beginning of fasting, there’s no how the clothes will fit perfectly because the measurement he has would have been lesser by some inches,” she said.
She added that since her school is in session and would only be given two days break, she’ll be visiting her friends who stay in town as she can’t travel to Sokoto to celebrate the festivity with her family.
On the Eid day, kids are very happy as they adorn their new clothes and hurry to catch up with their parents for the Eid prayer.
 Muslims gather early in the morning in outdoor locations or mosques large enough to accommodate the number of worshippers to perform the Eid prayer.  Men, women and children all attend. The prayer consists of a two Raka’at congregational prayer followed by a sermon. After the prayer and supplications by worshippers, they now disperse to their various homes to begin merry-making and consumption of numerous food items especially after a whole month ‘kama baki’.