How my family and I celebrate Ramadan & Eid.
Ever since I was a young girl my excitement of Eid and Ramadan would always equal to my peers excitement for Christmas. It was my parents mission to make it as special as possible for us - especially growing up in a non-muslim environment.
If you're not feeling that excitement, you know that it's time to implement some change, the month is ONLY what you make it and i'm about to tell you how we spend it.
It isn't a secret that my childhood excitement really shaped my adult experiences of Eid and Ramadan (I fully have my parents to thank for this)and I will probably never fully understand how some consider Eid a 'normal day' where people casually go to school or work ... and yet fully participate in Christmas .. it's the holiest celebration of our faith guys, c'mon.
- The first thing Mama and Baba do is ensured we ALL had the day off school and they too have the day off work. If you haven't booked it off yet, now is the time to.
- My parents also invented little Eid and ramadan 'traditions' for us to build up the excitement throughout the month. One of which included decorating the house with tinsel, fairy lights, lanterns, banners, and balloons at the beginning of ramadan, this includes an 'EID Wall / corner' for us to begin stacking our Eid gifts to each other in.
'RAMADAN MUBARAK' BALLOONS | HERE
3M X 3M FAIRY LIGHTS | HERE
10 PACK SMALL STARS | HERE
SINGLE LARGE STARS | HERE
'Ramadan Mubarak' balloons are perfect as you can just replace 'Ramadan' With 'Eid' the night before. They're also reusable - you blow them up using a straw and deflate them the same way ready to store for next year. I used a thread to hang ours instead of the string provided as I wanted it to be less visible. This pack is the cheapest I've found online - I shopped around a lot. They also come with a cute crescent moon and star which I haven't photographed.
I shopped around for the stars too, they were super hard to find but I wanted to stick with the silver, crescent moon and stars theme this year.
The fairy lights - although we had some they needed replacing as we've had them since we were born so I decide to upgrade to the 'Curtain' drape lights. They really look beautiful and have multiple settings so you can have them constantly on, fashion, fading etc. They also shine through the crescent moon cut outs on the stars.
The fairy lights - although we had some they needed replacing as we've had them since we were born so I decide to upgrade to the 'Curtain' drape lights. They really look beautiful and have multiple settings so you can have them constantly on, fashion, fading etc. They also shine through the crescent moon cut outs on the stars.
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- Gifting is a 'major key' in our celebration of Eid, they certainly don't have to be expensive gifts, just kind gestures to family and friends so that everyone has something to open and look forward to on Eid - weather they are spending it with loved ones, alone or in the office.
- Everyday weekday of Ramadan - one of us three siblings would cook our favourite dishes in the kitchen with mama, and Friday is always leftover day.
- Every Saturday of Ramadan - is spent with family and friends for Iftar, hosted with different friends and at different houses each week.
- On the 28th day of Ramadan - we host a themed Henna / Ladies Night / Iftar - everyone brings a dish, exchanges gifts for a place at each of our own 'Eid Corners' as well as all leaving with deep henna stained hands ready for Eid.
- On the 29th day of Ramadan - we stay up decorating traditional Libyan / Italian sweets with Mama in our brand-new pyjamas (another 'little tradition') - ready to wake up and open our presents on Eid morning and devour our family breakfast spread before Eid Salah.
Eid and Ramadan is what YOU make it, remember your attitude will decide the attitude of those to come.
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