AALEAD’s 3rd Annual Eid Celebration

By Melor Suhaimi, AALEAD Staff
Photos courtesy of AALEAD Staff & Youth

To me, Eid is a special time where I get to spend time with my family, eat a lot of food, and enjoy the holiday! And for the third time in AALEAD history, I was able to spend the Eid holiday with the AALEAD family last Friday night. Our Muslim youth collaborated every lunch period during AALEAD’s MD Summer Kinect program to brainstorm and plan ideas for our 3rd Annual Eid Celebration. AALEADers wanted to share the traditions that they experience with their families during the Muslim holiday, Eid. During Eid, there is a lot of eating (where Eid-al Fitr, the celebratory greeting, literally means Feast of Breaking the Fast) and continuing to eat while spending time with as many friends and families who also celebrate the holiday. Like many other cultural holidays (Lunar New year, Christmas, etc.) that other AALEADers celebrate, Eid is very similar. Overall, it is a time of festivities!

Our Muslim youth shared a presentation to our guests highlighting the importance of celebrating the holiday and also highlighted the month prior to Eid which requires a month of fasting.  Since MD’s Summer Kinect program was during this fasting month, our Muslim youth even thanked their peers for being supportive during the month where our Muslim youth didn’t drink water or eat any food from sunrise to sunset.  AALEADers learned a lot about the fasting month and Eid which gave them a better understanding of a different culture.  By the end of the celebration, youth and guests gathered to take pictures, continued to mingle, and laughs were shared all around.   The end of the night looked a lot like how I celebrate Eid with my own family and it’s great that I was able to share the same experience with my 2nd family, the AALEAD family.   Special thank you to Robin Riley, the Holiday Park Senior Center staff, Sadaf Halal Restaurant, and Tufail Ahmad in providing support for AALEAD’s 3rd annual Eid celebration!