I must be so special OR they're amazing hosts

The Eid-e (holiday) Ramazan has just passed. It's strange to think of the millions, billion, who fast for Ramadan, which I didn't hear of until I was 19. And it didn't mean anything to me until this year because I didn't know anyone who it effected.

It does effect. The month-long fast from food and drink lasts from 3:00 am until 6:45 pm. Women get up an hour earlier to make breakfast and spend the later part of the day preparing a big evening meal. We changed our work hours to 7:00 am-3:00 pm sans lunch, and didn't expect much from our employees.

Three days celebration mark the end of the fast. Visiting, feasting, and gift giving make this the most important holiday of the year. The first day is spent with family much as we would spend Thanksgiving or Christmas. Then in increasing circles, people except women visit neighbors, family, and friends for the next two days officially. The women's visits continue after the official festivities have passed.

Everyone is dressed to the nines. There are not so many sequins in Wyoming and Montana combined as in this town the past three days. Every family has a maemon hona, a designated guest room set up with a tablecloth on the floor covered with tiers of foods. Even in poor homes, every plate and saucer is employed with nuts, candies, and cakes. A visit need only last 20 minutes, but it's an important and timely way to connect with co-workers and neighbors.

It's not uncommon for women and men to stay the night at the house of friends or family. It's a customary courtesy to say "stay the night" even if you don't mean it. I went for a planned overnight to one of my girlfriends' houses on the third night of Eid.

I'd been there before, having met her baby and two of her husband's siblings, but no one else. Here's a list of the ways I was made to feel like a queen - in this place legendary for its hospitality:

• Multiple 'I'm very happy you came to visit me's
  
• A pear specially designated from the family tree by my friend's husband of whom I saw very little
  
• Getting to meet her father-in-law, the patriarch, who sent for another pear and knife to be served to me
  
• Automatic exclusion from helping cook because it's by flashlight without cutting surfaces over gas bottles
  
• The only chair in the house given to me while the matriarch insisted on squatting on the ground
  
• Having droves of neighbors come by to look at me or greet me
• Getting to watch TV with all the men while the women set out the dinner
  
• Being given two sterling bracelets as my Eid gift
  
• A beautiful dinner including meat and knock-off Red Bull, me having twice as much as my friend and her sister-in-law
  
• Bridal quality henna on my hands and feet
  
• Cushions and blanket specially sprayed with perfume before I bedded down
  
• Lovely breakfast with special cornflour/cardamom pudding
  
• Discussions of what color I wanted the matriarch to make my outfit that I'd only discussed buying elsewhere with my friend
  
• A bag full of pears and apples, and hardtack-ish cookies
  
• The sister-in-law putting me in the right taxi home

It's a little difficult to receive all of that. I do now know a few ways to be a guest here, when to share a slice of fruit, to offer back the chair, to say "I don't need four pieces of meat when the two of you have two pieces, take it," to bring gifts of cakes and cosmetics. It's overwhelming to imagine reciprocating. But very special.