Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
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
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- 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 […]
2 The lesson
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.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Eid al-Fitr have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A celebration that returns. 'Eid comes from 'awd, "returning", because it recurs. The Kuwaiti jurisprudence encyclopaedia, which gives this etymology, says the Muslims have two Eids: the day of fitr, the first of Shawwal, and the day of adha, the tenth of Dhu'l-Hijja. It adds that takbir is prescribed on the two Eids on the way to the prayer, in homes, markets and roads, until the prayer begins. What would you ask a family, to learn how they keep such a day?
I can now