At first Sadin was shocked to see Canberra’s empty streets over Christmas. Then it reminded him of home. Photo: Supplied.
As we return from various celebrations and get back to work, it can be easy to forget that not all of us mark the summer holidays in the same way.
Of course there’s Christmas Day, the day when Jesus was born (according to Christianity). People might be at church, reading gospels of nativity, singing Christmas carols. Some perform acts of charity, if someone is feeling generous that day.
Or maybe even none of this, because I’m just being very bookish here. This is not my religion and it doesn’t bother me if you’ve spent the whole day sleeping.
I’m just here to talk about how my Christmas went and how I found a symbiotic relation with a special day in my religion, which is Eid-ul-Fitr.
This is one of the main festivals in Islam and, while we celebrate it in March, it is very similar to Christmas.
This was my second Christmas in Canberra. This year I sadly had no friends over, so I planned to explore Canberra on 25 December to see what the city is like on this special day.
I already saw that this festive day is celebrated in houses, as I saw cars parked outside and people taking dishes from their trunks.
But oh boy, I was shocked seeing Civic on Christmas Day!
A complete ghost city, so beautifully decorated for Christmas, but with no-one in the vicinity.
It felt like I was the only person alive in this apocalyptic world.
There were few families, but still they were seen rarely. I took a walk through the Parkes Way Footbridge east to get to Commonwealth Park and from that bridge I took a photo of the highway, which was also completely empty.
When I finally reached the park and sat down near Lake Burley Griffin, that is where I started to see some humans enjoying their time off with their loved ones by having a picnic or similar.
When I returned home I saw my landlady was having a Christmas party on our back lawn.
This all made me realise something: Eid and Christmas are not that different. It’s just the beliefs that make all the differentiations.
We celebrate Eid exactly the same, with families and loved ones, taking the chance to reflect.
I know a lot of Canberrans had also travelled to spend time with family, that they didn’t stay home here and it’s the same in Muslim cities.
In Dhaka it becomes a ghost town, because everyone in Dhaka leaves to visit their village to get to their loved ones, or to travel together.
During this time those who celebrate Christmas open the gifts from under the tree with their family, while Muslims gift ourselves by breaking the fast in the morning with our bloodline – this may seem different, but to me they have the same meaning.
Religion should never be the first identity that comes to your mind in this world, it’s just another belief humans have, according to their own terms and it should be respected duly.
It should always be the handshake that comes first when you meet someone for the first time.
I cannot finish without saying that my deepest condolences are with victims of the Bondi Beach shooting and their families. May God never keep us, nor Canberrans, in solitude when the topic is about Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and more.
Sadin is a student at the University of Canberra who is also working in hospitality. He is originally from Bangladesh.
