Eid Al Adha giveaway

Honestly people, where does the time go? I paused briefly during the whirlwind of activity over the weekend and realised that I've now been living in Bahrain for a month. A whole month!

And corresponding to my time here so far, this week brings the Eid Al Adha break - an important religious holiday known as the Feast Of Sacrifice. Eid is like Easter, in that the days it falls on are dictated by the moon - it is celebrated on 10th day of the 12th (and last) month of the Islamic calendar; that's the month that concludes the Haj period - the Haj is the pilgirmmage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, which all Muslims must do at least once in their lifetime.

(As an aside, here is an incredibly detailed tapestry of the pilgrimage, which I photographed in Dubai last Thursday. The big black box represents the "centre", as Muslims must face towards the centre when worshipping god - pilgrims walk around it in an anti-clockwise direction as they pray.)

Eid falls this week, and traditionally it's celebrated by the family getting together and slaughtering a fat sheep for a feast. When I was in Syria a few years ago for Eid break, I took some great photos of my travelling companion posing with a big group of sheep herders, who tried to convince us to buy one of their animals for the kill. We demurred, noting that it would be hard to carry a slaughtered sheep around Damascus, as we had no form of transport except our own feet. They were fine with that.

In many cities these days Eid is  celebrated more through giving gifts and holding big dinners and parties, and because it's a three-day holiday lots of people go away. I, for example, am off to Lebanon along with The Good Witch, where hopefully we will take in some culture, enjoy some nightlife, and not get arrested by Hamas.

But I digress. Eid means presents! And so I'm offering this genuine mosque alarm clock to one lucky reader. It is made of 100% plastic and was bought here in the Manama souq. When the alarm goes off, what you hear is the call to prayer instead of your traditional bell or buzz. I love it, it's so completely kitsch. Wouldn't this make a cool stocking stuffer??

You know what you have to do - to enter this competition you must already be a follower or join up as a follower. Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite holiday (Christmas, Easter, Australia Day, sickie) and why. If you blog about this giveaway on your own blog you'll get not one, but TWO entries - make sure you include the link to your post in your comment.

I'll randomly draw the competition when I'm back from Beirut later this week, on Saturday, and of course I will post this anywhere in the world. Good luck!