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Tyler Texas Eid 2017

creamykopi
Jun 26, 2017
4 min read

The members of the ETIS (East Texas Islaim Society) and the masjid of Quba agreed to hold it's Eid program in the year 2017 at the Oil Palace in Tyler, Texas together at around 9:45 a.m. on June 25th, 2017 in order to connect the members of the community together in order to settle their differences after their rough history together.

When we arrived, we began with the takbeer, which is when people would say "Allahuakbar," which means "God is Great" in Arabic and then the dua or prayer, until the actual Eid prayer begins. Once the Eid prayer is over, the Imam gave a khutba or a sermon/lecture on the topic of being united, since as mentioned before the Muslim community in Tyler had a rocky relationship with each other, and ultimately in the end one group decided to branch off and form their own group, and they even built their own mosque. I do not know all of the details myself, but from what I have heard the first Imam at the mosque was a temporary Imam who served when the mosque was first built, until the mosque could get another Imam. Once they got a new Imam, the people who like the old Imam got upset, so they got together and left, and made their own mosque. I have been to that mosque myself with my brother and father for Fajr/ morning prayer about a few weeks ago, and it was still in the process of being built, with the building running on a generator still.

Before the Eid began on that day, the Muslims in the Tyler, Texas community had a dilemma. The Muslims at the new mosque of Quba wanted to have the Eid at the oil palace, while the Muslims at the ETIS wanted the Eid to be at their mosque so that members of both communities could use the time to bridge the gap that divides them. So they came up with a compromise: they will have the Eid prayer and activities in the morning at the Oil Palace, and later on in the afternoon when the sun begins to set, they will clean up at the Oil Palace and move to the ETIS mosque and celebrate Eid there together, by ending the day with fire works, like they have done every year.

The Oil Palace was like a concert hall, because it had a stage up front. Bleachers surrounded the stage on three sides, with the floor being smooth, grey, concrete, and walls are red and white, with different sections labeled.

They had bounce houses in the form of a pirate ship, a train and a castle. The kids who were jumping on them were making a lot of noise screaming. There were humming sounds coming from the fans to keep the bounce houses inflated. The pirate ship bounce house was red, black, blue and yellow, with a giant parrot and a slide. A Disney princess themed jumper was mostly purple with pink outline. The train bounce house was the same one used at the spring festival, and it is yellow, black, blue and red, and the wheels are yellow, black and white at the bottom of the blue base, and the frame is red, with inflated engine lights.

Some people brought their own prayer mats, but for those who didn't they had some long brown cardboard on the floor for them to pray on.

Everyone around me was talking to each other, since some of them may not have seen each other since the ETIS first got divided after several conflicts, which is great, since Eid is a time for everyone to be together to celebrate.

After the prayer was over, we were served food. We had fluffy glazed donuts, with chewy sprinkles and really thin icing. The flat bread (which I did know was at first, until I tasted it and smelled it) was floury, which could have been a fried crepe, and was also slightly sturdy but sweet. The chick peas were round, warm and hard, but chewy with some spices mixed in. There was also meat (which was beef) that was slightly heated, which was spicy brown and was chopped up into tiny pieces that looks like taco meat. The potatoes were yellow, and mashed with smaller bits, with some spices (probably black pepper).

Unfortunately I had to leave a bit early because I was so tired, but I came back when they move the program from the Oil Palace to the ETIS Mosque, where they had fireworks that night. Usually they would set up the fireworks near the trees just past the soccer field, where they would launch them up into the air one at a time, unless they are the type of fireworks that go off in bursts and explode together. The smaller fireworks would be small balls of fire moving to the air and disintegrating without a bang. While the bigger ones would pop into the air and go off in a bang, like cannons being fired or a shotgun going off in a shooting range, with colors of red, orange. Some of the sparklers would explode with a small orange explosion fizzes and then disappear in the air. Other fireworks would go off together in short bursts. Some of the kids were making "ooh" sounds as the fireworks erupted in the air. There was one set of fire works that went of in a steady stream of orange into the air with small popping as they are shot into the sky and fizzing sounds as they fade out of the air. There were times that felt that the fire works were over, but the people handling the fireworks were only preparing for the next batch of fire works in between. There were people talking in the background as the fireworks were going off. The organizers also brought ice cream for anyone that wanted some, and some chocolate to add, which I did to my ice cream. Overall it was a very fun event, and I hope that this brings the Muslim community closer to each other.