In continuation of my summer trip abroad to Canada, the second most
fresh memory of mine was the festive celebration of the famous Islamic holiday:
"Eid Al-Fitr", which takes place directly after the last day of “Ramadan",
which involves the dedication of fasting for one month. Similar to every Eid
celebration, the sequence of events begin with the entire family dressing up in
their new outfits that were purchased specifically for this holiday. Then we
head to the mosque for the morning Eid prayer, where all the Muslims unite to
pray and celebrate together. Once that is done and over, a regular tradition is
that after prayer, the “imam”, which is the leader of the prayer, executes a
Eid speech that is carried out in English with slivers of Islamic terms in
Arabic incorporated. Since we were celebrating an Arabic holiday in Canada,
which is an English speaking country, code-switching was vastly implemented,
thus showcasing the hybrid product of the combination of languages within a
religious holiday. For instance, this was applicable when the imam mentions a
prophet’s name or a “hadeeth”, which is a collection of traditional Islamic sayings
derived from Prophet Muhammad, or references to the Quran, which is the holy
book of Islam. This even further continued throughout the day during our visits
to our Arab friends; for instance we would articulate a sentence in English and
then insert ‘Eid jargon’ that is a celebratory gesture in Arabic: “Eid Mubarak”
or “kol am w inti bkhair”.
Therefore, in reference to the Grade 11 Language
and Literature course, code-switching, language hybridization, and religious
jargon, are very common within immigrants. Therefore, our celebration of Eid Al
Fitr in Canada indicates the use of such facilities that were studied within
the first year of the Language and Literature course.
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