Eid-ul-Fitr has been traditionally observed as the principal festival of the majority of Bangladeshi Bengalees through untold centuries. The form and shape of the festivals changed with time. But the essentials remained unchanged. The Morning Prayer symbolizes joyful reunion. Visits to the homes of near and dear ones, relatives and friends mark the occasion with reinforced fellow-feeling and friendship. Varied and plentiful tasty dishes for those who can afford these are indivisible part of the day of delight. Even those with meagre means mobilise all their resources to arrange improved diet. New clothes, ornaments and shoes are a must for all, specially the children. Each and everything has to symbolise a new beginning. Eid, essentially, is a day of renewal of the spirit of everlasting joy.

In Bangladesh, in recent times, Eid-ul-Fitr appears to have been charged with a new significance. Many and varied dimensions seem to have been added to what in times past was a much simpler manifestation of the shared joy of an entire community. There is wider and more active participation. No doubt that the continuously increasing population has something to do with the expansion of the scale of participation. The forty million of the 1950s became seventy million in the 1960s and nearly 140 million in 2004. The overwhelming majority of this increased population is Muslim. No wonder then that Eid in Bangladesh in the present times is celebrated by many more people than before.

It is not only the absolute number of population that has changed the character of the festival. The quality of a smaller, though very significant segment of the population also plays a role. Thanks to the newfound resources in the hands of this section of the people, there is for them now more money to spend, to buy new attires, jewelries, shoes, other gifts and delicious and expensive food. All this appears to make Eid a more lively occasion. On account of increased financial resources in possession of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, shopping becomes a vigorous and almost massive activity nationwide. From this point of view, Eid in present-day Bangladesh, is no more contained in one single day. On the contrary, it seems to signify a veritable season lasting over an entire month or even more. Shopping spree, for the able many, begins virtually with the inception of Ramadan. Renunciation goes, so to say, hand in hand with an irresistible urge for acquiring new possessions.

Even for those endowed with less resources, the season of Eid is one of desperate search for affordable gifts for near and dear ones, particularly the children. Eid leaves its calling cards everywhere: in the busy and crowded streets of cities and towns, in the time old village bazaars, in the mansions of the rich and mighty and in the shanties and huts of the poor and deprived.

Why has Eid assumed such magnified and massive dimensions in today's Bangladesh? What is the measure of the change in scale and intensity? There is no simple answer. Nevertheless, a journey down the memory-lane may hold some clue to the key to the transformation.

One remembers the time of early childhood in Calcutta (now Kolkata), the capital of United Bengal under the British Raj. Eid was joy in a community that constituted a vibrant and significant minority in a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual Sub-Continent that was still undivided. The delight of observing a basically religious festival in a varied society had a simple splendour. It combined a communal festival with friendly understanding and exchange with devotees of other faiths. The new clothes and shoes were there. So were the tasty dishes. All gifts were rolled in a package of parental love and affection. Wealth and riches did not drown all. The invaluable gift of love shone like a priceless gem.

One also remembers Eid in one's village home, some 20 miles south of Dhaka across flowing rivers and meandering canals. The mosque under shady trees, the congregation of simple rural folks in new, clean and inexpensive clothings, smiling children in colourful dress, tasty food that did not burden the guardians with humble means and the everlasting happiness of joy shared all sketched an enduring portrait of delight with indelible colours.

Then, in the mid 70s there were Eid celebrations in London. The multi-ethnic congregations in Regent Park mosque were veritable carnivals of many races and colours united in a common faith, sharing in joyful festivals. There were numerous people with their children. The mosque and its compound, though specious, was inadequate to comfortably contain the crowd. There were often exuberant rush and one feared that ones' children would fall victim to stampede. However, tolerant joyfulness prevailed and all eventually went well.

One also remembers the times in the 1950s and 60s when Dhaka was a provincial capital, growing with steady planned steps, not yet overcrowded or bent under the weight of grotesque and heartless multistoried monstrosities. Eid in Dhaka, as in the whole of the then East Bengal, was a simple, joyful uncrowded time.

Things have changed, though not in basic terms, since the birth of Bangladesh as a sovereign state. The canons of the sanguinary struggle for the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 were nationalism, democracy, secularism and socialism. Socialism has disappeared with the demise of the system in Eastern Europe and collapse of the then erstwhile Soviet Union. The other values including secularism or at least non-communalism still dominate the Bangladeshi politico-social system. Nevertheless, the dynamics of a predominantly Muslim society operate with quiet strength. The Muslims of Bangladesh are God-fearing but not fanatics. The intensification and widening of Islamic religious values, rites and rituals are evidently visible. The increased enthusiasm for religious festivals like Eid is a manifestation of this phenomenon.

The other reason of greater enthusiastic participation in Eid festivities may relate to the lack of manifold avenues of entertainment and recreation for the masses. What is scarce, even absent at other times, are sought to be made up during the Eid festivals.

A major feature of Eid in Bangladesh is the virtual emptying of the big cities, including Dhaka during Eid. The predominantly rural character of the society, despite fast growing urbanization, is borne out by the return of millions to their village homes to celebrate Eid. Dhaka becomes bereft of nearly half of its population. The sparsely populated city during the Eid holidays assumes the look and flavour of Dhaka of the 1960s.

The massive movement, though temporary, of the bulk of the masses to the villages for observing Eid reminds one of the sadness of deprivation of the rural many who are poor. That poverty is a fact of life and detracts from the general mood of festivity. One is bewildered by flashy advertisements for expensive Eid-wears which cost several hundred thousand taka. One is also sorry that ostentation is accompanied by heart-rending poverty and want. Pending the winter harvest there is hunger stalking some of the rural areas. One wonders if things have changed much since the rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote his touching poem during the British Raj:

The crescent has risen in the Western sky

Where are you hiding in shame,

O' Belal, in a forgotten corner of a desert cemetery. . . . . . .

...Look, the peasants are walking to the Eid congregation

Like Dead-alive beings.
Belal, your voice chokes
Even as you sound the call to the Eid prayer.
One of the farmers has lost his child
Only a few days ago.
Is the crescent moon
A reflection of the rib
Of the innocent child
Who is no more?

Dr. Mizanur Rahman Shelley, a social scientist, is the founder Chairman, Centre for Development Research, Bangladesh (CDRB), Editor, quarterly "Asian Affairs", Overseas Director, American Institute of Bangladesh Studies (AIBS) and Chief Adviser, City University, Bangladesh.