Eid al-Fitr: a celebration that comes back every year

Curriculum expectations

A2.1 — formulate questions to guide investigations into some of the past and present traditions and celebrations in their own family and the communities to which they belong […]

A3.4 — describe some significant traditions and celebrations of their families, their peers, and their own communities, as well as of some other communities in Canada, including First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit communities […]

Brief

This lesson asks you to ask good questions about the traditions and celebrations of your own family and community, and to describe some important ones. The curriculum also names First Nations, Métis and Inuit celebrations; the museum links only a celebration kept by Muslim families, so your class adds the others. ¹

What do you want to find out about a celebration?

The expectations ask for questions about how a celebration was kept in the past and how it is kept now. Think of who, what, where, when and why, and decide who could answer each question.

How would you describe a celebration to a friend?

Say what people do, when it happens and who takes part. Then say what your family does differently from a classmate's family.

Go deeper

The Encyclopaedia of Islam describes how people spend the day. On both festivals, it says, people put on new clothes or at least their best, visit one another, congratulate one another and exchange presents ². Eid al-Fitr, the festival of breaking the fast, is celebrated on the first of Shawwal and the days that follow ³. The article notes that these customs are more usual at Eid al-Fitr than at Eid al-Adha, and that because the hardships of the fast of Ramadan are over, it is celebrated with much more joy ² ³.

Think about it

The article says people visit one another and exchange presents at the festival. If you asked two families how they keep a day like this, why might their answers be different?

Into the museum

Eid al-Fitr: what the Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Kuwaiti encyclopaedia say about the day.
Eid al-Adha: the other festival the article names.
The fast of Ramadan: the month that comes before Eid al-Fitr.

Try this

Read Eid al-Fitr. Write three questions you could ask a family about a celebration that comes every year, and ask one of them at home.