AMONG the gifts of new clothes and sweets for Eid al-Adha, the toy of choice for Syrian children this year has been the plastic gun. Boys carrying small black pistols and long brown rifles roamed across the streets of Damascus, doing battle. "Bang, bang!" shouted one boy aiming at another across the street, before ducking behind a dustbin as his friend pretended to return fire. Others scampered around the old city's winding streets, guns swinging by their side.

Toy guns are always popular Eid gifts. This year's are mainly cheap plastic versions imported from China which, along with Russia, has blocked a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on its protesters. The sight of children pretending to shoot each other is an uncomfortable one in Syria. Eight months into an uprising that the authorities have brutally repressed, gunfire has become the norm for children and adults across the country.

Hundreds descended on the capital for the four-day festival. For many, the holiday has been even longer than usual this year. Students were given time off last week after protests broke out in several private universities. In the centre of Damascus, crowds thronged through the narrow streets. Smartly dressed families bought snacks from street stalls and piled into restaurants. Some said they wanted to forget what was happening in their country. Others wondered how people could celebrate when just a few minutes away the violence continued.

At least six people were shot dead by security forces on Wednesday November 9th, the last day of Eid, at a funeral for Bassam Bara, a protester, in Barzeh, a Damascus neighbourhood. Those killed included his brother. With people dying every day, even during the fasting month of Ramadan in August and the festival of Eid al-Fitr at the end, holy days no longer seem so holy. And many have commented on the poignancy of Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice during which animals are slaughtered on the first day.

Since March, when protesters first took to the streets, the UN says that over 3,500 civilians have been killed. Defecting soldiers and frustrated civilians are pushing up the death toll, killing members of the security forces and pro-regime thugs known as the shabiha.

"I do have one," says a fifteen-year-old boy from one of the towns near Damascus, showing off his new plastic gun and its tiny sugary pellets. "But I know shooting is not right," he says, anxiously eyeing his father, who says he wants the regime to go. His son puts his toy gun down and uses his fingers to mime shooting in the air and makes a tuh-tuh-tuh sound. Back in his home town, the guns are not toys.