Eid shoppers, beside purchasing dresses, shoes, cosmetics and other outfits, procure prayer accessories to accomplish their festival preparation.
People are buying prayer cap, rosary, attar, prayer mat, etc to attend Eid congregation in the morning with religious fervour.
Baitul Mukarram market is the hub of prayer accessories in the city. More than one hundred shops deal in the items - local and imported.
Many kinds of prayer caps, such as haji tupi at Tk 50 to Tk 200, Yemeni tupi at Tk 150 Tk 200 and China tupi at Tk 200 per piece is available in the market.
'As people are getting more fashion conscious, style in prayer cap has also been changing in course of time' said salesman Shafiq, selling the item for eight years.
Prayer hat is available inside and in front of the all other shopping centres, including Piryani Market, Dhaka College and New Market.
However, for expensive caps, people go to Basundhatra City where Malaysian VIP prayer cap sales at Tk 3000 and Pakistani velvet caps at Tk 1,250.
There are also rosaries made of precious materials like ivory at the cost of Tk 95,000 which came from Madina.
100-bead Kala Marzan and Cuk cost Tk 30,000 and 33-bead black coral rosary is sold at Tk 30,000. Pearl rosary is available at Tk 1,500 to Tk 8,000.
'In a 100-bead rosary, beads are divided into three groups by slightly larger three beads which is placed after every thirty-three beads,' said salesman Abdul Kader of Al- Musk shop at Basundhara City.
Rosaries, made of gold, silver, amber, coral, etc are also available at Baitul Mukarram.
Atoshi bead rosary costs Tk 1,500, white Akik Tk 650, Akik Tk 200-600 and crystal rosary beads are sold at Tk 50-200.
Japani fibre rosary sales at Tk 30, radium China rosary costs Tk 40 and radium China local Tk 20 is very popular at present.
China counting rosary of 1 lakh beads is sold at Tk 120.
Nahida from Badda bought Pakistani jaitun rosary at Tk 150 and China jaitun rosary at Tk 80 for her family and one Bangladeshi cod prayer mat at Tk 150.
Indonesian velvet prayer mat is sold at Tk 600 and Turkish velvet one at Tk 550.
However most of the customers choose foreign mats from Belgium at Tk 2000-9000, Syrian at Tk 1600-2000, Turkish Tk 900-1500, said Jashim, salesman of a Basundhara city shop.
'Wearing a new prayer cap during Eid has a traditional appeal more than religious significance' said Mizan who came to buy rosary and prayer mat near Baitul Mukarram.
Source : New Age
