Showing posts with label celebrations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celebrations. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Our Eid

So the husband made the traditional watalapan which was a blast. We had fish on toast, rasa malai, carrot halwa, kaju kati, string hoppers, egg curry and fruits and nuts. The prayers were held at the convention centre where more than 5000 muslims met up. Some others chose to pray at masjids nearby so I'm guessing there is a very large muslim population in Arizona.

An important ritual of eid is sharing food and sweet meats with our immediate neighbours who are not yet muslims. Not only does it encourage friendship and brotherhood but it also open the doors to da'wah. It shows our genorosity and shares our joy! May be they never knew us before but now we start saying hello to eachother more often and the walls seem to have broken down a little.

Among the savoury items were fish on toast and biriyani that complimented the sweets. Visitors were eager to experiment with our traditional Sri Lankan cuisine.

The only missing part of the eid was not having family around but thanks to skype and phone cards we were blessed enough to feel their presence through all our celebrations.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Make Eid fun for children

Weddings and Eid are supposed to be occasions of joy and laughter. We need to make them special and fun for our families and kids. If you dont make our eid fun for our kids they will start thinking that christmas and halloween are much more fun than Islamic festivals. Who says our days of festivals are not fun?

Here are some suggestions to help you:

1. Parents: make it a priority to take leave if it is a day of working. Show your families that you respect that day enough to take leave. who knows it may soon become an official holiday

2. Mothers - make the sweets and dishes thatyour kids love most. Decorate and colour it in a special way to make it look different from any other day

3. Children: Help with the eid shopping. pick out gifts for your cousins and friends. decorate the home if you like to but dont be too wasteful

4. Relatives: Give gifts. It is a sunnah! Buy the children toys, books, clothes and fun actvities.

5. Youth: organize competitions and games for the kids and yourselves. Have prizes.

6. Children: Make a performance of your favourite nasheed or hadith

7. All: Dress up and look good! Be cheerful and smile all day long!

9. Give sadaqa - Make children love the act of giving!