Connecting Through Celebrations
Graduating Party
While I was raising my kids my husband and I took birthdays seriously. The way we viewed birthdays was another year in life, gratitude to see another year by the grace of God. Now, for my grandchildren, a milestone is their birthday, and another is when they pass each grade. There are only happy life milestones.
Quran Celebration Party
When my kids were growing up we placed them in an Islamic School. We wanted to place our kids in an environment where they could preserve their Muslim identity and practice their religion. As well, teaching my kids the Quran was really important to me. In my family, birthday celebrations were not celebrated instead we celebrate Quran and Eid parties. It was a celebration we did yearly in our house, calling our friends and family to get together on important occasions.
Retirement Party
I have been in the workforce for almost my entire life. I retired when my daughter was pregnant because I wanted to spend some more quality time with my granddaughter. I thought, if I don’t retire now I’ll be working, six to six in a stressful job, and my whole energy would be gone to the job. Once time is gone, it's gone forever, and my ability to spend time with my grandchildren would have been greatly diminished. Years later, you can't form the same kind of connection with grandchildren. My daughter threw me a surprise retirement party, and that's when we took this photo. They organized all kinds of charming and amusing small speeches, games, and quizzes about me.
Eid Mubarak
We enjoy spending time together with family and our loved ones. Before COVID-19, it was tradition for me to invite my extended family to celebrate Eid at my house. Usually, you would find everyone from the extended family coming together. Unfortunately, this Eid when COVID-19 hit, we were unable to host the Eid party indoors. We rented a site near a park, where we decorated the gazebo with Eid decorations, bringing games for the children, prizes and a lot of food. Although we are grateful to have gotten together and celebrated as a whole family, Eid felt different, it didn’t feel like the usual.
