We
were lucky enough to have an Eidfest event near us this Eid. The event was organised by 1Eid whose vision is:
“We will strengthen and unite local communities by reviving, celebrating
and sharing the essence of Eid.” Which is kind of wonderful.
There were a couple of things I liked about this event. The foremost was the beautiful halal and comfortable
environment. There were Muslims from all
of our diverse local communities in their regional finery and I really enjoyed
seeing what the sisters were wearing and seeing the kids all dressed up. We could pray without thinking twice about it
and there was space to make ablution.
Entry was cheap (£1 each), although the rides were not, the kids blew
all of their Eid money on rides, soft toys and slushees and got an earful from
their dad for it. I browsed the stalls,
buying halal sweets, including those cigarette sweets we used to love as kids
but can rarely find a halal version of now.
I managed to get onto a ride with the babies that I thought was for
little kids. I have an intense fear of
heights and no stomach for any ride apart from the tea cup ride or a carousel
if I am feeling brave. I didn’t realise that the ride went up quite high and
spun around very fast, so I spent the whole time with my eyes shut and praying
to Allah to let the ride finish and promising to be good. The babies were not scared at all and enjoyed
themselves.
The fireworks were quite late and as it was cooling down and the girls
didn’t have their cardigans, we ended up getting ready to leave before the fireworks
started. Luckily we had parked all the
way at the other end of the park and got to the car to realise that this was
where the firework display was and that it was about to start.
I have never been to a firework display before and I was a little
worried the babies would get scared. We
really enjoyed the display and the babies were thrilled (I wonder how a chicken
like me has such brave girls).
The Eidfest was a really nice part of our Eid this year and I will look
out for it in future years.
No comments:
Post a Comment