Following the school break for the last few days of Ramadan, students and teachers marked the Eid al-Fitr with a celebratory day at school. Ustadha Sadia describes the day, its intention, ethos and activities.
Marking the celebration of Eid al-Fitr with our pupils at school this year became a wonderful opportunity to support our children in learning through experience rather than instruction. Though this is the aim and approach we adopt for all aspects of school life, this year's celebration afforded a more concentrated opportunity to experience 'living' together and celebrating together in the way of Ihsan - excellence and beautiful practice - with:
- remembering and showing thankfulness to the Creator
- practising service to others and contributing to the community
The celebratory day at school thus involved children wearing their best clothes to school, making dhikr (remebrance) together, singing poems of praise and love for the Beloved Messenger sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallim, preparing food for our community of children and teachers, serving each other, sharing food together, playing together and of course praying together (the latter two being a usual daily school practice).
Cultivating Beautiful Environments
Lower Elementary and their teacher Ustadha Sumayyah created a wonderful set-up for the group's shared meal, decorating tables and making individual place settings beautiful in an effort to cultivate a special environment, honouring the Eid and honouring the place in which dhikr (remembrance) is made.
Remembrance and Sacred 'Sound'
Pupils started their day of celebration with remembrance and thankfulness to God Most High - as is befitting of any celebration. Following their daily morning litanies, they gathered in small class groups to recite the glorification litanies of Eid - the takbiraat. Younger pupils learnt from old pupils, some of them hearing these for the first time, before raising their voices to sing poems of praise, peace and blessings upon the beloved Messenger of God, sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallam. Then, once again, as all pupils gathered together to enjoy their meal, pupils recited the glorification litanies of Eid and sang in praise of the Messenger of God, sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallam.
At school, we make an effort for children to be surrounded by traditional sounds in devotional song which have emerged from the richness of traditional cultures. Our programme of inshad at school is an opportunity for children to hear and sing high-quality Arabic language in poetry from scholarly or spiritually rich sources. Melodies themselves – not only words or the use or non-use of instruments - have an impact on children (as well as adults) so we aim to be mindful of this at school. The sounds they hear in times of celebration at school do not necessarily have to be in Arabic of course – it is very important for them to hear sounds of praise in English or other languages for example - but celebratory 'sound' of any kind ought to be of a similar quality, especially of good quality language or poetic form and of ‘traditional’ melodies. These are different to the many modern ‘anashid’ which mimic or are in the pattern of modern pop music; their melodies (regardless of whether they use instruments or not, or what their words are) are fundamentally different to that of traditional devotional melodies.
Mindfulness with Food
All the food consumed in the school celebration was homemade, prepared by students with their teachers at school, such that all parts of the school community came together to contribute towards a meal and then shared in its enjoyment. The littlest children in The Children’s House and their teachers made lovely biscuits from scratch in the shape of crescents the day before the celebration, and assembled fruit kebabs in the morning of the celebration day, whilst dressed in their best Eid clothes! The Lower Elementary children and their teachers prepared very tasty and popular cheese and tomato pastries, whilst the Upper Elementary children and their teacher put together wonderfully colourful and healthy platters of appetisers with an assortment of vegetables and homemade dips. The Senior School pupils, who had spent the previous few months establishing their school community Cafe business, generously used some of their collected profits to prepare a main meal in the form of two tasty pasta bakes, as well the school special: the Deenway Date and Honey Cake. Children took their prepared foods around to serve each other, and it was nice to see many children try food items they do not usually eat.
Celebration involving food at school thus became an opportunity to experience a beautiful dining experience with some of the etiquettes and manners taught by the Beloved Prophet, sallaAllahu alayhi wa sallim, including the opportunity to practise sharing and serving others, and contributing to the community. Our aim and intention with celebration at school, in the spirit of the Prophetic Way, is to produce little to no food waste in the way of left-over foods or other types of waste at school. This is a work in progress. On this day, as such, washable, re-usable or recyclable materials were used and children took home any food or drink they did not finish eating.
Nursery Celebrations
Our 3-4 year old Nursery children were not forgotten in the day of celebration! Although they did not join in the whole school's meal due to their session timings, they celebrated in their classroom in little ways: dressing their best like the rest of the school, making their own party hats, sharing food together as a group, and engaging in other festive activities wth their teachers.
Alhamdulillah, it was a blessed day overall. May we continue to have opportunities for beautiful celebrations in the most mindful ways possible, in the spirit of Ihsan. A snapshot video containing more scenes of the day, accompanied with the Eid Takbiraat in the folk rhyme of Dawud Wharnsby Ali, can be seen here: