Eid is here again, giving everyone an occasion to celebrate. It is a culmination of a month of piety and charity, and brings with it a reason to be happy. Should it therefore be taken for granted?

This year, we at The News on Sunday want to reflect on what eid means to us as a people. It is certainly a time when religion and culture mix in a way that brings out the best of both. It is a time to carry on traditions; to stick to rituals and to also go beyond rituals -- to pass on values to the next generation. This is what makes the eid prayers significant.

But times change and so do values. So it is time to recollect all that we have retained and things or traditions or rituals we have allowed to let go.

Migration is an essential part of modern lives; so how do people who have moved away from home and family celebrate eid, in foreign countries and alien cultures. It turns out that people would celebrate it no matter where they are in whatever manner they can. Nostalgia is the guide and eid happens.

What about people of other faiths around us or people of our faith in non-Muslim countries. What they know of eid depends on how inclusive we make it for them. In our Special Report today, there is an account of an Indian Hindu celebrating eid in a Dawoodi Bohra household. This is the kind of spirit that we need to reinforce amongst us.

Read also: As the door opens to guests…

Not the least important is eid in literature, particularly poetry. Over to you and Eid Mubarak…