Rema Alradwan will celebrate her first Eid ul-Fitr in the United States this Saturday away from her family, friends and a country full of people celebrating the end of Ramadan.
“The tradition is to get with family,” Alradwan said. “This is my first time not with family. It’s going to be a little hard.”
Alradwan, a pre-pharmacy junior from Jordan, has been in the United States for about three months.
Back home, Alradwan’s parents and siblings will celebrate the holiday, visiting family members’ homes.
Meanwhile, in Stillwater, Alradwan, along with students and Stillwater residents from a variety of countries, will gather at the Islamic Society of Stillwater.
About 1,000 Muslims, including about 400 students, live in Stillwater, said Nasrat Touqan, Muslim Student Association president.
On Saturday, about 200 Muslims will say the Eid prayer at sunrise, usually at about 7:30, at the Islamic Society of Stillwater mosque, 616 N. Washington, then eat a variety of dishes people have brought for breakfast.
This year, Eid is luckily on a Saturday rather than a school day, Touqan said.
“Last year, I had a quiz so I had to go there and come back [to the mosque],” he said.
Muslim Student Association members usually send letters to Stillwater public schools to tell them what day Eid will occur and to expect some students to be gone that day.
For Eid, children receive gifts, sometimes money, sometimes presents just as children celebrating Christmas would receive.
Angie Abo-Basha, 10, said she hopes she gets a Nintendo DS for Eid.
Angie said her parents ask her every year what she wants for Eid and she usually gets it.
“Unless it’s a car,” she said. “They’re not going to get me that.”
Angie, like a lot of her friends at the mosque, is fasting.
Not drinking water is the hardest part about fasting, Angie said.
“That’s my big weakness … because I play kickball every day,” she said.
Touqan said the most important aspect of Eid isn’t presents, though.
All Muslims able to donate must give at least $10 in charity.“We give to the poor so they can buy new clothing for the kids or they give their kids money,” he said.
The purpose is so poor people can also share the joy of Eid, he said.
“This is between you and God,” Touqan said. “Nobody will come and force you to give that money out.”
Abdullah Modhesh, an education doctoral student from Yemen, said people give during Eid because it’s a communitywide celebration and people want their neighbors to be able to celebrate too.
Modesh usually starts out greeting close family and then traveling to aunt and uncle’s homes.
Most houses will have a combination of kahk, a baked pastry rolled with powdered sugar sometimes with nuts inside, and mahmoul, a dessert with dates and nuts inside, along with chocolate and coffee.
Modesh said it’s sometimes hard to adjust to not having family and the atmosphere of Eid present when celebrating.
For example, Modesh said his wife has been in the U.S. for three years and every Eid since she has been here, she has cried.
“In the morning, she starts crying because she misses her family,” he said. “All the relatives live far away in remote villages where she cannot go. On that day, they come together like a reunion. That spirit is not here, everybody walking in the streets, well-dressed and sharing joy. Even if you have an enemy, that day you forget every bad feeling.”
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