Display:
Well, the racket arising from the giant mosque across the street tells me that Eid al-Fitr is here.  Ramadan is officially over in the Republic [sic] of Egypt.

Eid is here.  Where are my earplugs?  The next several hours, possibly up to the next six or seven of them, will consist of this guy shouting ALLAH into the microphone at FULL VOLUME with REVERB.  It is atonal, arhythmic and agonizing.  And really, really loud.  I mean honestly, they crank those babies up to 11.

WHY DO THEY NEED TO USE REVERB?!?!?!?!  I am fairly sure that there is nothing about reverb in the Qur'an.  Or hadith, either.

Oh my.  Now we have feedback.  Great.

I think I'm going to ring in the Eid with half a bottle of whiskey.  And a pair of earplugs, did I mention the earplugs?

Ow, my head.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Oct 11th, 2007 at 04:33:53 PM EST
I've never understood the amplification thing either. The minaret is to assist projecton of the human voice. That's the tradition, same as a bell tower on a church. But the ampification isn't tradition and is just about the ego of the governing board wanting to get in people's faces.

you have my sympathy. Can I recommend going to a motorbike shop ? that's where I get earplugs from. and they're damn good ones too.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Oct 11th, 2007 at 04:54:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, to be fair, in the Prophet's time, the muezzin didn't have to be heard over the sound of nine million automobiles with horns blaring.  And assorted other forms of noise pollution that Cairo is home to....

I have a really excellent set of earplugs that I got for plane travel, plus a bunch of the disposable yellow foam kind.  If it's still going when I go to sleep, I guess I'll find out which works better.

I'm afraid to say this because I fear the minute I do, it'll start up again, but it actually seems to have stopped for now.  But the last two years he'd take a break and then start up again.  So we shall see.

I really like the call to prayer at that mosque, but the Eid is tough.

by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Oct 11th, 2007 at 05:03:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Crap.  I knew it.  He just started up again.
by the stormy present (stormypresent aaaaaaat gmail etc) on Thu Oct 11th, 2007 at 05:06:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think you'll find there is a line in the Quran which roughly translates to "Eid announcements must make more noise than the crowd at the stadium when Egypt win the African Nations Cup..."

Hence the amplification.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Oct 11th, 2007 at 05:30:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:
Login
. Make a new account
. Reset password
Occasional Series