25th December – birthday of the Christ and the Quaid

The last week of December is a week of celebrations – when the entire Christian World is engrossed in celebrating the birth of Prophet Isa (May peace be upon him) or the Christ. Yes I am talking of Christmas – falling on 25th December, the birthday of a prophet. Unlike the Christian world, for whom there is no prophet to revere after the Christ, we the Muslims have same respect as we have for any prophet that came to this world before Prophet Muhammad (May peace be upon him). For us, the birthday of a prophet is as respectful as it is for his followers.

So Happy Christmas to all Christians around the globe. And I wish everyone peace, love, prosperity and all the happiness in life. When I went to market today, I saw lot of rush on shops selling Christmas trees……

Read original post: 25th December – birthday of the Christ and the Quaid

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Chitramas – the Kalash Winter Festival

Although Christmas has some resemblance with the word Chitramas, but the latter is celebrated in a very remote area of the world in the Chitral Valley of Pakistan. Chitramas or Chaumos is the winter festival of the Kafir Kalash people living in three valleys of Bumburate, Birir and Rumbur in the Chitral. The festival is presently being celebrated by these indigenous people of unknown origin, which will terminate on 22 December. Chitramas festival is considered the most important festivals of Kalash people from their spiritual point of view.

The Chitramas festivities are held to mark the end of the previous year’s harvest and fieldwork. Thereafter, the month of Chawmos Mastruk of the New Year dawns. The festival thus is a sort of saying goodbye to the previous year and welcoming the new year. The festivities include dancing, lively music and sacrificing goats. The Kalash slaughter their goats, mostly one goat per adult man or woman, on the concluding day of the festival. The festival also gains importance for the reason that the Kalash believe that god Balimain visits its subjects during the festival. Besides the many festivities, food sacrifices are offered at the clans’ Jeshtak shrines, dedicated to the ancestors.

However, some men and women volunteer to seclude themselves from the others and remain confined in a cattle house for the duration of the weeklong festival. This tradition of seclusion is called Autik, which simply means “to get secluded.” These people eat the meat of the slaughtered goats, drink and pass time in merrymaking. While these people are celebrating in seclusion, care is taken that no outsiders sees them, lest they get polluted.

The Kalash children go up to the mountain, where they divide into boys and girls, and respectively make a big bonfire. After singing songs for some time the fire will be extinguished and then the two groups will compete with each other for the size of the smoke that rises up in the air. Then they all go down the mountain and return to the village singing ” songs of Sarazari” carrying branches cut down from the mountain top. The elders will be waiting chanting songs in the village.

The festivities don’t get mar by the heavy snowfall at this time of the year in the Chitral valley. However, in case the sun shines, it adds colours and joy to the Kalash people. If you happen to be visiting Pakistan next year, do plan to visit Chitral and join the Kalash people in their festival of Chitramas – which at least by its name won’t let you feel missing the Christmas celebrations.

Related Reading: The Kalash Valley – where fairies dance and sing (Pakistanpaedia)

11 years old boy predicts his own death

Coincidences are very rare and one would not know of their innocence turning true and tragic one day. Here in this case, it was only two days before that a young promising boy of 11 years wrote about a car accident that he actually met two days after. Perhaps his essay on car accident would have gone unnoticed had what he written not come true.

Here is how it happened. An 11 year old boy Asfandyar of Rawalpindi Pakistan wrote an essay on car accident in his school and “fabricated” a scene in which he was hit by car and taken to the hospital in an ambulance wailing sirens. This was just another essay school children write to dramatize and make it sound different. Perhaps this essay was different as it was to become reality two days later.

On Sunday the 5th of December, young Asfandyar along with his father went to Bahria Town Rawalpindi to witness a drag car race organized by the housing scheme owners. Two cars were participating driven by youngsters. Since this kind of event had not taken place earlier of cars speeding in excess of 200 kmph, no worthwhile security and safety arrangements were put in place by the organizers. The spectators merely stood on both sides of the roads to witness the exciting event.

The race started and as one of the drivers was changing over to the hyper speed, he lost control of the car and his car skidded off the road and ripped through many spectators standing there. It killed five people, including the young Asfandyar and his father. The boy died in the car accident as he had predicted two days earlier.

The scars left by his death would take a long time to heal, but his coincidental death leaves others speechless and baffled. But strange are the ways of Nature. Sometimes it gives forewarnings of an impending trauma or disaster, which only innocents like children can read and understand.

Watch video of the accident and excerpt from Asfandyar’s essay

The post first published

at The Fire Within (1o December 2010)