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Celebrating Eid at BestStart Gillies Avenue
At Beststart Gillies Avenue we are fortunate to have our centre whānau made up of a range different cultures, languages and beliefs. This allows us the opportunity to celebrate and take part in a variety of different important dates and holidays that are of significance to our families.
Recently we enjoyed supporting some of our family’s beliefs through acknowledging and celebrating Eid.
Eid-ul-Adha, the greater Eid, follows the completion of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, at the time of Qurbani (sacrifice). During this festival, children accept gifts & money from adults. It is an occasion of enjoyment, family, and feasting. It is traditional to wear new and clean dress, visit relatives, give gifts and share messages of love and well wishes. Another important Eid tradition is giving back through the giving of food, primarily meat, to those less fortunate which is usually observed by taking some time in the day share food with people in need or neighbours and family.
For the celebration in Centre, the children engaged in beautiful colourful art, in which they gifted to each other, and listened to traditional stories. They shared a meal that was beautifully prepared by a couple of our lovely families and learnt about the traditions of giving to others and showing love and kindness.
The importance of recognising and partaking in these celebrations is not only to share in what is important to our centre whānau, but affirms and celebrates cultural differences, and aims to help children gain a positive awareness and appreciation of their own and others cultures, enabling all people of Aotearoa to weave their perspectives, values, cultures, and languages into the early learning setting.