On the Night Before Eid, Mothers Made the Magic Happen
The New York Times
For the joyous Muslim holiday to work, mothers in New York City spent Saturday night preparing, merging traditions from around the world with ones developed here.
On Saturday evening, Kenza Fourati and her two zealous children hovered around a decorative Ramadan calendar they put up about a month ago in their Brooklyn home.
“Yallah, let’s turn it around,” Ms. Fourati said. Together, they flipped it and revealed the other side: “Eid Mubarak. The Mohyeldin Fourati family.” The sun had just set, the crescent moon was spotted and it was confirmed: Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the holy month of fasting for Muslims, would be on Sunday.
Decorating the house during Ramadan and Eid is a relatively new tradition that Ms. Fourati, a model and the co-founder of a brand called Osay, has adopted. As her children have been getting older, they have been asking more questions about their faith.
In Tunis, where Ms. Fourati, 39, grew up with a large family, Ramadan celebrations were all around her. On the night before Eid, she recalled running around the streets surrounding her home with her friends as fireworks lit up the sky.
“This is how I grew up, and I want to give them a glimpse of how we grew up,” said Ms. Fourati, who has been creating fun ways for her children to explore being Muslim.
