The people gather nearby the mosques, but prayer is held outside in nature, under the wakening sunshine and over the grass (in Egypt, large carpets with festive design are lain down over the ground to keep people dry from the morning dew as they pray and to keep clean).
Before the actual prayer, the people chant prayer together (sort of like one massive outdoors choir), with different people taking turns at the microphone which leads the crowd, voices ringing in unison across the landscape. Children run about through the crowds of people.
Everyone is dressed in their finest clothes or beautiful prayer gowns, as the prayer goes on you can hear the laughter of children and the calls of awakening birds around you, while the people stand shoulder to shoulder with one another, giving greeting and sweet tidings for the year ahead.
