Eid ul-Fitr 2015 celebration

I’ve spent almost entire Ramadan in Poland. We came back a week before it’s end so Alhamdulillah I could fast those last few days at home. I cannot imagine celebrating Eid in my home town in Poland where the only muslims I can find are those who work in a Turkish restaurant in the old market square. 

Therefore, I’m happy I was already at home.

I packed the gifts and decorated a living room in the night

As every year, we began our celebration with the morning Eid prayer. Dressed in new or best clothes we headed to a park not fat from our house. It’s a sunna (tradition) of our prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). He used to recite Eid prayer not in a mosque but in open air. One of the mosues in our town once again has organised the prayer in the park and for the second time some attractions for families with kids: stalls, bouncy castles and a fun fair. Around 60,000 muslims attended the prayer (last year around 40,000).

On our way to prayer

Before the prayer

 

Crowds waiting for the prayer to begin

Unbelievable sense of community and on top of that muslims show they are peaceful people who are able to celebrate in numbers without disturbing the peace.

The city’s mayor was a special guest.

After the prayer kids were looking forward to opening the gifts. So we didn’t use and enjoy the rides in the park as that would make us late for the visit at my in-laws who have been waiting impatiently for our arrival.

I came across a stall with Moroccan products where everything has amazed me. I am fond of Morocco, my husband (even though not Moroccan) also likes Moroccan products especially traditional clothes and lanterns. We visited Marrakech together in September 2008 during Ramadan.

Moroccan stall

Prices were high but I couldn’t stop myself and at the end I bought a metal tray and two metal dishes with lids for sweets. I didn’t know they were meant for sweets. They reminded me of metal bowls that Pakistani/Indian restaurants use to serve curry in and I bought them with this intent :)

My hunted treasure :)

We’ve been thinking about a large lantern for our corridor but I thought our ceiling is too low and we would hit the lantern with our heads not to mention that they’re not compatible with normal bulbs and it’s probably complicated to connect them. Besides, it was very heavy and if not mounted properly I was scared it would fall and cause some damage. We left it.

Traditional Moroccan lanterns

We passed by the fun fair and surprisingly kids didn’t say anything, they were thinking only about their gifts. We’ve opened them at home (we planned to open them at grandmas) and had even some time to play with them as daddy was caught up with friends outside. It was fortunate especially for Quba who got an xbox game from us and would otherwise need to wait until late afternoon to enjoy it. Quba was very happy to be able to play, the girls played with their new toys and we finally went to visit the in-laws.

After we came back, Quba sat down to play again, the girls continued to play with their toys and mummy lied down for a nap :)

At the end of the day, when kids would normally prepare for bed, just after 8pm I allowed them to stay up longer especially that they chose to watch an Islamic cartoon “Muhammad the Last Prophet” that I’d also bought them for Eid.

THE END :)