Eid al Adha, the celebration of the sacrifice, begins on the 13th of Dhu al-Hijja and lasts for 4 days, and commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice. God willing, it serves as a reminder to be patient, generous, and willing to give of ourselves and our wealth. In 2021, it fell on the 20th of July* and I took the day off to worship and spend time with family.
I’ve talked about Eid before, so I’ll point you to back to earlier posts, if you’re interested.
Otherwise, read on…
Early in the day, maybe even the day before, I decided to shoot an entire roll of film, and chose something I’ve had in the fridge for a long time: a roll of 1998-expired Lomography 800, acquired when I bought the clear ActionSampler that came from a Toys’R’Us bankruptcy sale. According to the numbers on the canister, it was rebranded Ferrania Imaging Solaris Color FG800, so I held it for a couple of years, as there’s not much old Ferrania out there. And, well, it seemed sort of sacrilegiously appropriate to “sacrifice” it on Eid al Adha, and may God forgive me.
Eid always starts with a special sermon and prayer, so I walked to the masjid, worshiped, and then got to shooting.
After leaving the mosque, I walked home to drop off my prayer mat, and then over to my Mother- and Father-in-Law’s place to get the celebration started.
Good food and good conversation with better family? Who could ask for more?
The camera just loves my little niece Aisaha… MashaAllah.
We left Amma & Abba’s for a neighbor’s house, and it was good to see all the brothers and sisters gathered together after almost 2 years. I kept my mask on most of the time—even vaccinated, I remain masked, and with the Delta variant, I’m once again hyper vigilant.
We took a brief break after that, napped a bit, then went to my Brother-in-Law’s house for a late lunch and hang out.
I got one of the best pictures of my father-in-law. He’s almost as cute as his granddaughter, and you can see where she got her looks…
And then it was time to go home and make selfies until I ran out of film…
And that was Eid al Adha 2021. Alhamdulillah, it was a great day.
The long-expired Ferrania 800, shot at EI200, held up great, I think. It’s a bit grainy, maybe, but any color shifts were easily managed in Capture One, and I remain hopeful that the new Film Ferrania will one day begin producing good Italian color stocks again.
Oh! Like last week, I felt somehow compelled to make this series into a zine, so I did. You can download a print-ready copy here and it should print fine, double-sided, on 6 sheets of 8.5″ x 11″ (US Letter-sized) paper. And like last week, I had as much fun making the zine as I did taking the pictures… Seeing photographs printed and something made of them is something I don’t experience often enough, and I need to remedy that.
**The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and days start and end at sunset, rather than at midnight, so, really, Eid began at sunset on June 19 and ended at sunset on June 23.
