"Eid's A Wonderful Life"
Ahem. So last night CBC showed not one but two holiday episodes of Little Mosque On the Prairie. The first was the Eid-ul-Adha special, apparently titled as you observe in the header of this post.
So: already pretty brilliant.
It begins with Sarah moping a little bit about how it's the time of year when she misses celebrating Christmas the way she did as a kid. Yasir points out that she's been a Muslim for long enough that she's probably spent more years missing Christmas than she did celebrating it, but Rayyan is more sympathetic and suggests that, since Eid falls so close to Christmas this year, maybe they could get some fun decorations for the Eid dinner at the mosque, which is traditionally catered and decorated by Fatima. Rayyan ends up sort of running amok at the department store and pretty much buying one of everything, including a very disturbing figure representing "Slappy, the Elf With An Eye Patch" who is the main character in a traditional Christmas cartoon--Rayyan used to watch it as a small child.
In the meantime, it turns out that the Eid dinner is scheduled on the same night as Rama-Lama-Sing-Song (I think I have that right) which is apparently Rev. Duncan's usual big holiday blowout. Rev Duncan objects that there won't be enough parking for both events. (Amaar: "We're on the Prairies! It's all parking!" Thank you for that, Toronto-Boy.) Interdenominational scuffling ensues.
In the meantime, Baber's daughter Layla has been asked to do a dramatic reading at a "Holiday show" at her school.
Baber: "What will you be reading?"
Layla: "Oh, something from this old book by... Charles Dickens. A Something Carol, or something..."
Baber predictably freaks out and goes to see the principal, who assures him that the show is a non-denominational event representing all religions. Honest!
Baber: (sarcastically) "Oh, really? So I suppose you would be happy for my daughter to do a skit explaining the origins of the Muslim festival of Eid?"
Principal: (delighted) "Really? Would she? That would be wonderful!"
Layla: (dies of embarrassment, only not quite, because that would be too easy)
And in fact, it turns out death would be preferable, because the next thing Layla knows she's costarring in the skit with Baber.
In the meantime the holiday decorations (they're not specifically Christian, featuring as they do snowmen and candy canes, but you get the idea) have pretty much eaten the mosque, which annoys Fatima enough that she cancels her contribution to the Eid dinner and decides to hold a rival feast at her diner. (Sarah: "The fighting! It's just like Christmas when I was a kid!") Leaving Sarah and Rayyan to do the cooking. They plan their "famous turkey chili," which not even Yasir seems to have heard of. Yasir, who objected to the decorations as well but only because he didn't want to have to put them up, is not thrilled with the idea of a community Eid festival because it would force him to make nice with a rival contractor named Bhoutros, an irritating man who only appears at the mosque when there's an event like this.
Fatima, meanwhile, places an order for fifty-five pounds of lamb, which her regular supplier cannot fill. He recommends she go directly to a farmer. Which she does--Joe, our paranoid old friend is the farmer, and he has a lamb named Delores. Since he is not a halal butcher, Fatima buys the lamb and takes her away to do the job herself.
If you think you know where this is going, you are right. The next time we see Delores, she's wearing a bow around her neck and following Fatima on a leash. Later, when local children come to the diner to ask to play with the lamb and Fatima replies that Delores "is gone," I don't think the kids' mother quite understands that by "gone," Fatima actually means "to a farm probably run by Birkenstock-wearing artisans, where she will spend the rest of her natural life as a valued partner in the production of handmade sweaters."
In the meantime (sorry, the stories overlap and my vocabulary isn't up to it) Sarah and Rayyan are making their chili and when they add chopped peppers they figure anything called a Scotch bonnet pepper could not possibly be that hot, so they double the amount.
Yeah, I didn't know the Scotch bonnet was one of the hottest peppers in the world, either. So now we have two feasts, and no food at either of them. (Rayyan: "I'm sorry dinner is ruined." Sarah: "Nine out of ten Christmas dinners get ruined somehow. It's just like when I was a kid!")
While all this is going on Amaar and Rev Duncan have not yet agreed on a split for parking but Yasir offers to valet-park on the principle that this will keep him out of Bhoutros's way.
And Baber is writing a script for himself and Layla, carefully observing the rules against direct representation of Allah or the prophets, so we are about to witness a skit involving vast amounts of hearsay. Riveting.
On the night, Yasir is happy to park cars until Baber, dropping in for a moment, reminds him that when he has to park Bhoutros's car, he'll be trapped. Which results in Baber parking cars for quite some time, until he finally rebels and points out that (a) he's going to be late, and (b) the church parking lot is empty.
Because Rama-Lama-Sing-Song has been accidentally scheduled opposite Slappy, the Elf With An Eye-Patch, and you just don't do that. So Amaar invites Rev Duncan to the Eid feast.
Where everyone is in the process of discovering that there isn't any food.
But wait! There was plenty of food for the sing-song-that-wasn't, so Rev Duncan runs off to collect it along with his helpers, and everyone has a nice Anglican feast in the mosque. Well, it's nice for everyone except Yasir, who is cornered by Bhoutros, a guy with a hundred get-rich-quick schemes who is married to a blond convert and... yeah, it's hard to tell which is the evil twin.
Baber is late for the school event by this time, so he comes charging in wearing his red coat and winter hat with a fluffy white pompom, carrying his bag of props and a beard for his part in the skit that isn't going to happen... because Layla has gone ahead with the Dickens reading (the part where the nephew explains why the holiday season is wonderful) and Baber comes in on this, with his daughter being lovely, and everyone rapt, and the talk of goodwill and love and...
Well, predictably he gets all teary, and I did too, and then he equally predictably gets mistaken for Santa Claus by a bunch of little children and barely escapes with his life.
And, after telling her how proud he is of her, Baber and Layla end up happily performing their skit at the end of the Eid dinner at the mosque.
And okay, did I learn a lot about Eid? No, but I don't learn much about Christmas from most Christmas TV episodes, either. And yes, there were a lot of ties to Christmas, but I would think the inundation of that holiday is hard to avoid. I mean, realistically, a Muslim community in small-town Canada would be up to their ears in Christmas stuff at this time of year and it was fun seeing one take on being Muslim and Canadian at this time of year. And it was certainly the kind of affectionate and warm holiday special I most enjoy.
I hope this is like the Halaloween episode and they run it again next year. It was delightful.