Preparing for Eid - A Cautionary Tale

Sidi Driss was frantically searching his wardrobe for an outfit to wear for Eid. Finding nothing that would fit, he hurried into the Medina and deciding he would not wear the usual traditional djellaba, he hunted for something more modern. Wanting to stand out and look splendid for the holiday he bought himself a new and very expensive pair of designer jeans and an Italian designer shirt.

When he went home and tried them on, he found that while the shirt fitted him well, the trousers were too long by 15cm.

He asked his mother to help him shorten the jeans for him but she was not feeling well and told him to go ask his wife to do it for him.

So Driss approached his wife. But she said she was very tired and she still had a lot of work to do preparing for Eid.

Finally Driss asked his daughter. His daughter apologized for not able to do it that night because she had agreed to meet some friends in the Ville Nouvelle.

Later that night, Driss’s mother thought to herself, "My son has been very nice to me. I'll just help him to shorten his new jeans before going to rest." So she shortened the trousers by 15cm and went off to sleep.

A short time later his wife finished her work and thought,"Poor Driss, he knows I am always very busy and seldom asked me to help him. I would oblige him today." So she shortened his new jeans by 15cm.

It was late when his daughter came home from visiting her friends and everyone was asleep. But, not feeling tired she thought, "Papa loves me very much and when I turned him down, he was not angry at all! I would help him to shorten his jeans." So she shortened her father's trousers by 15cm and left them by his bedside while he was asleep.

All of which explains why Sidi Driss became the first man in the Medina to wear designer shorts on the holiday and why people now call him "Driss - the knees of Eid". It also explains why - on every Eid thereafter - he wore a djellaba.

SHARE THIS!