Many of the Eid rituals in the Yemeni countryside still delight the hearts and comfort the souls of many Yemeni families, despite the suffering and sorrows left by wars and crises over the past 7 years.

Al-Jazeera Net visited some areas of the Yemeni countryside in the governorates of Taiz and Lahj and got acquainted with many of these religious and social rituals, and how the Yemeni rural community lives these rituals during the days of Eid.

The feast in the countryside

Talking about rituals, whether festive or otherwise, is a conversation about historical beliefs, customs and traditions that are rooted as a civilized and popular identity for any people.

Thus, the journalist Nazir Al-Aqil began his speech to Al-Jazeera Net.

The Eid rituals in rural Yemen are an expression of the simplicity and beauty of the rural person embodied by spreading joy (Al-Jazeera)

He added, "Our love to spend the Eid holiday in the countryside stems from our love for the purity of nature, the countryside society and its sound instincts, our closeness to people, their faces full of joy and bliss ... and their handshaking and visiting..and their generosity and hospitality .. and all those traditions and rituals that have been entrenched within us since childhood are what It makes us into him, and it is what gives the holiday a flavor that we cannot find elsewhere. "

For its part, the Director of the Culture Office in the Al-Shamayatayn District in Taiz, Hayam Al-Turki, says that "Eid rituals in the Yemeni countryside formed the culture of the community, produced its cultural, historical and civilizational heritage, and printed it in the memory of Yemeni people from childhood, and it is an expression of the simplicity and beauty of the rural person embodied in the spirit of identity and love." Goodness and spreading joy, happiness and joy. "

Feast rituals

During our visit to the district - Lahj, we found a rural community that still preserves many of the ancient Eid rituals.

Taha Moqbel al-Dahmashi speaks to Al-Jazeera Net, "As soon as the signs of the crescent of Eid are dissolved, the children will come out to" pray. "

The men meet in a house where there is a mosque next to it, and this house is for a senior or a legal person, so they perform the evening prayer in the mosque and enter directly into the usual home to hold such events, and during that the council leads a number of elderly people who perform invocations, supplications, remembrance and a number of religious poems from Folklore.

Eid rituals in the Yemeni countryside formed the culture of the society and produced its cultural heritage (Al-Jazeera)

Until near the dawn call to prayer

After that, the people tend to perform ablution, then go to the mosque to perform the Fajr prayer, and the takbeer and takbeer are done after the dawn prayer until the Eid prayer.

After completing the Eid prayer, the family meets for breakfast, and then visits the wombs.

Then Yemeni drums and dancing are beaten in a joyful rhythm with the participation of the elderly, children and men until the time of the noon prayer, so everyone heads to prayer, and then everyone goes to their homes to have lunch.

Abdul-Jabbar Jweiber, a researcher on Yemeni folklore, added, "These rituals differ according to the village and the region. There is a slight difference between one region and another from the Yemeni geographical map, according to the customs that the tribes inherited from their ancestors."

The feast is in the southern countryside

In the southern countryside, the Eid begins with a group of marginalized people known as (servants) passing by the houses of the tribes, climbing to the roof of the house and the beginning of beating the drums with distinctive accuracy that predicts the arrival of the Eid before sunrise, and it passes alternately on the houses, until the preparation for the Eid prayer comes after washing, perfume and wearing traditional clothes. Authentic in its distinctive form, drawn from history, roots and identity.

Then everyone heads to shake hands, forgive, eat breakfast together, visit wombs, and distribute sweets and feasts to young and old.

While women are busy cleaning and decorating homes, making perfumes and incense, as well as preparing lunch.

Forum second day of Eid

Nazir al-Aqil added that in the past, a gathering or gathering was held on the second day of the Eid in which the people gathered, and they came from some areas of the governorates of Taiz and Lahj, where they would practice dancing, exchange congratulations and blessings, and discuss social issues until that afternoon.

And return again to their villages to the sounds of drums and dancing, and after that the holding of weddings and gatherings, and the night sires in their old traditional forms until the end of the 10-day holiday period.

In the governorates of Taiz and Lahj, they like to hold wedding parties during the days of Eid Al-Fitr (Al-Jazeera)

Between the countryside and the city

Hayam al-Turki says that the Eid rituals in the Yemeni countryside no longer exist as they used to be, due to many factors, the most important of which are wars and economic crises that made the majority of the rural community in cities reluctant to travel to the countryside to spend the Eid holiday, in addition to the conquest of the city’s culture in the countryside, as well as technology and means Social communication that helped in the absence of many of these ancient cultural rituals and legacies.

Goiber believes that during the last decades, there has been a change in these authentic and inherited customs, and many of them have disappeared, starting from changing the appearance of people and their clothes to their lifestyle and types of food, and the city’s spirit has become overwhelmed by its stereotypical form, and a civil life has replaced its details from different cultures coming from all parts of the planet , The features of the local cultures were obliterated.

Adhere to the inherited spirit

However, a segment of people continued to try to adhere to its authentic Arab heritage in an attempt to confirm the spirit of privacy and preserve its heritage derived from its deep-rooted history.

Goeber concludes by saying that in light of the lack of political stability, it is not possible for the cultural offices in the directorates to carry out regular awareness and encourage adherence to the spirit of the heritage, and to develop vigorous plans to revive the spirit of authenticity and renew adherence to our identity and social norm.