Alhumdulillah,the new moon has been sighted. Hence, the first of Dzulhijjah falls on Monday 13th August and on (10th Dzulhijjah) 22nd of August, we will celebrate Eid Adha.
Growing up in a minority and non Muslim country, I have always seen my family, relatives and my community taking Ramadan very seriously making sure that they do their very best to achieve the most out of it. In fact, Eid ul Fitr celebrations can be stretched for a whole month by some. On the other hand, Eid ul Adha was never celebrated in any significant way. Alhamdulillah, as I grew older and have been given the opportunity to study Islam more what became clear to me were the virtues associated with the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah and significance of celebrating Eid Adha.
Undoubtedly, after migrating and settling in New Zealand, celebrating the two Eids specially for the young children become an important task for me and others in Nawawicenter.
The Canterbury Eid Festival (2015) was first initiated and organised by Nawawicenter with our young children in mind. We understood and realized how important it was to make Eid days, significantly important, memorable and fun days for our children. If we do not, in the future, other non Eid festivities will become significant to them, and they will possibly lose their islamic and cultural connections.
This year, sadly we were not able to have our annual Canterbury Eid festival due to the unavailability of a venue to hold the event. The next best thing we thought of was to hold an EID KIDS FESTIVAL instead. So that the children do not miss out on the joy of celebrating Eid Adha.
We are privileged to be able to use the facilities at Te Hapua, Halswell Centre for this event. The venue can only hold 500 people at one time. For this reason, we have made this a Children and Ladies only event.
We have food stalls available from the Middle Eastern, Somalian, Indonesian, Malay, Pakistani and Indonesian communities. And those who love waffles, don’t miss out on Lana Crepes and Waffles. Lana will be there too.
Nawawicenter volunteers will run The Cafeteria drinks stall for fundraising.
Those who love henna hand painting art, there will be a few professional henna hand artists available at your service.
A special face painting Artist, Poppy Dewdrop and friend, will be available specially for our children for a small fee.
There will be performances by IslamfirstKids on the Main Stage, with organised fun games and activities at the Arena. Adzan for Asr salaat will be called at 3.30pm and salaat will be at 3.40pm, inshaaAllah.
Our last activity for the day will be an Islamic Quiz/Jeopardy style on the Main Stage. Anyone interested have to put their name on a piece of paper. We will pick 6 names to participate in the Quiz at 4pm. The winner wins a price!
Don’t miss this event. Get your kids there early for face painting and kidz henna, only from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. And don’t miss out on the team games,activities and competitions that we have been planned for them. See you there, sisters!
