SHARE JOY, EID MUBARAK Let us be creative in celebrating the festival during dusk-to-dawn lockdown

MUSCAT: This is the second Eid during the pandemic and at a time when all the governorates are under dusk-to-dawn lockdown.

While visiting people have been referred as counterproductive to the measures taken to contain the coronavirus by breaking the chain, the health experts say even exchange of food is not a good idea – which is yet another Eid custom practised in the Sultanate.

A bank in Oman has also come up with an innovative way to ensure the practice of Eidiya – children especially look forward to this feature of Eid as they visit the elders, family and friends. This could have gone completely missing but now with the latest facility from Bank Muscat you can electronically send out Eidiya to the people one wants to.

The changes and challenges are not going to have an impact on the spirit of Eid al Adha if one is positive.

Hatim al Abdulsalam has not been at home to celebrate Eid al Adha for the last 15 to 16 years. As member of Sultan Qaboos Information Center on Islam, he would have been in Mina by now as he has been the last 16 years if there were no pandemic.

“This Eid al Adha is indeed a unique one. My family is busy preparing the house for the festival. This is a great opportunity to express our gratitude to Allah for being able to prosper and carry on with our daily activity. I am sure there are a lot of families out there who might have a family member or relative in the hospital suffering from COVID-19. We have to be law abiding citizens as per the Supreme Committee because it is for our own good as well as for everyone else too.”

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