Rizwan, 4 years

I go City Centre, then the circus. There is a car and two bikes in City Centre. I, my father, Fuaad, my mama and all go to City Centre. Night only we going. There also cars. Salah in my house. I eat cake, ice-cream, chocolate. Put on dress

Umair, 5 years

I woke up in the morning. I showered. I put my dress. I groom my hair. I ate food. Food was biryani. My cousin sister was there. I like the Eid. Also I scared when they took the goat out.  I went to my friend’s house. I left my cousin sister in the hostel I cam back to home. I ate food. I played with my brothers and I slept.

Zainab Anas, 6 years.

I like my brother. I like Eid party. I like my school. I like ice-cream. I played with my friends. I like my friends, my new dress Churidaar. I like my dress. I like camel very very much like camel. I like go Saudi Arabia. I love Zainab. I like beach. I ate ice-cream on Bakr Eid. I like the cat.

Khadija, 6 years

I put a new dress and I go down to see cow cutting. I like Zainab. I like Afifa (Australia). I like my friends. I didn’t go anywhere. That other Eid I go. I went to Ur. Two days lived and come here. On Eid my friend comes to my house. Her name is Taqia. She is is Perimet. I played and be with her only. And I like Ruqaiyah and my brother. His name is Muhammad. I like me. I like Arshiya and Farzana. I’ll play with my friends. I pray with my friends. I like my teachers. I like school. I like playground.

Maseerah, 6 years

I put “Mehandhi” I go to Masjid. I put my pink dress. I eat cake. I read Quran. I write. I play. I got to my friend’s house. I read bed stories. I eat Macaroni.

Ruqaiyah, 4.5 years 

 We also gave a lot of the meat to the poor and we took some of it. I had a lot of fun that day with my friends. At night I ate parota with korma.

Bakr Eid is a festival that Muslims celebrate. This tradition has been followed for centuries. It was started by our Prophet Ibrahim (AS) and it went like this: One day Ibrahim (AS) dreamt that Allah commanded him to sacrifice his son Ismail (AS). The next day he told the dream to his son.  Ismail (AS) said “O father, Allah commanded you to do it, so do it.” Ibrahim (AS) took his son away to sacrifice him. As he reached a place which is now known as Mina – a valley near Makkah – Satan appeared and tried to stop him from doing his Lord’s commands. The prophet Ibrahim (AS) picked up a few small stones and threw them at Satan. Little Ismail (AS) and his mother did the same. The prophet Ibrahim (AS) gently placed his son on the ground and blindfolded himself with a handkerchief so that he could not see his beloved son while carrying out the Lord’s order. As Ibrahim (AS) took a knife to sacrifice Ismail (AS), Allah sent the angel Jibril (Gabriel) down with a ram. “Sacrifice this ram. Do not sacrifice Ismail (AS)” said Jibril to Ibrahim (AS). So this is how it started.

On Eid we got up early in the morning at 5^oclock. I did everything and put on my new dress.  We went for Eid prayer in Unity Public school but we were very late and they had started the prayer so we went to another place in Adyar for the prayer.   We got home and we bathed the goat and my father gave it water to drink before sacrificing.  This time, the butcher did not come, so my father had to take the goat to a shop.  My father had a lot of trouble taking it to the shop especially when it was a butting goat. My father had to drag it to the auto and tie its legs!

The meat was shared with our neighbours and poor people. We gave one third to our neighbours, one third to the poor and had one third for ourselves.  My cousins came and we had a lot of fun by playing games like lock and key, hide and seek and karate. We took turns sleeping too!

What I like best in Bakr Eid is the Eid prayer.  I really enjoyed my Eid.

During Bakr Eid, we watched goats getting sacrificed. One goat was so stubborn it kept going out of where it should have been and tried to butt Shabeer Uncle.  We had an Imam who led the Eid prayer. He recited a Surah. The surah’s name was Surah A’ala. I was learning it.  Then later he recited another Surah that is the 87^th surah of the Quran.  Its name was Ghashiyah.  When I finish A’ala I am going to learn Ghashiyah.  But only when A’ala is fully solid. 

We had about 7 goats to be sacrificed.  The goats were big – about 3 feet length and 3 feet in height.  They were all sacrificed in the courtyard.  Also a friend of my big brother, Junaid, took a goat head’s and scared his sister with it.  Then later another person, a 16 year old, said to her “You’re scaring me more than they are”. And you know why?  Because she was screaming!  After we saw the goat skinned and cut, someone told us that the skin was still moving.  It looked like the heart was still beating.  Then we checked the insides – it turned out that we couldn’t see the heart. Maybe it was because the heart wasn’t beating any more.  It was gross to see that but it was a fact that we looked in.  We bought some meat back with us. We gave some away to poor people. The other we cooked. One of them was mutton kanji.  The other was mutton rice.  When I tasted the mutton kanji, it was lovely.  I fell sick because of swallowing toothpaste.  So I had to eat only a little. The next day was still Bakr Eid. And yet the next day was still Bakr Eid. In Arabia it is called Eid ul Adha.

Bakr Eid was nice.

Id ul Adha is called the Id of Sacrifice. We are celebrating Id ul Adha to remember Ibrahim’s (AS) sacrifice. We celebrate it in Dhul Hijja 10^th day.

One day Ibrahim (AS) had a dream that Allah told to sacrifice Ismail (AS) in one hill. Three times Shaitan came and told “don’t go; don’t go” Ibrahim (AS) will cut you.”  They picked some small stones and threw them on Shaitan. Then they reached the valley around mountains.  When Ibrahim (AS) was going to cut with axe, that time Allah told Jibril (AS) to tell Ibrahim (AS)”Don’t cut Ismail (AS), cut this ram. “

Every Muslim should cut the ram or camel or goat or sheep. We should tell when we are cutting “Bismillah, Allahu Akbar”. Divide meat into 3 bowls, one for us to eat biryani, one for poor, one for neighbours.

Even people will go to Haj. People going to haj will wear white towel. They will celebrate Id in Mecca Saudi Arabia.

I want to tell you about my festival Eid ul adha aka Bakr-Eid. We celebrate this festival to remember what our prophet Ibrahim (AS) aka Abraham did. He was ordered by Allah to sacrifice his son Ismail (AS) aka Ishmael. When Ibrahim (AS) was going to sacrifice his son, Allah ordered the angels to save Ismail (AS) and place a ram in his place. To remember the hardship our prophet had, we sacrifice a goat also. We can also sacrifice a camel, buffalo, sheep or a ram. We distribute the meat to the poor and to our relatives. We also keep some for ourselves. 

I woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I took a hot bath after that and I wore my new clothes. I prayed my Eid prayers and then greeted my family. I then went out to see the goats being sacrificed. I felt sad for the goats because I know that I’m not going to eat it. I rarely eat mutton or chicken. I like to eat fish or beef because they taste really good.  After I saw the sacrifice I went and helped my mother to pack the mutton up. That took a long time. I also ate my lunch in between. We had biryani.  Biryani is a special rice cooked with spices. It is very famous rice in India. Most of us like it. 

After that I went and sat in the sofa in the hall with my cousins. We chittered and chattered there. After all this, I went to my room and started reading a book. I read and read and read and then I went to sleep. The next day I went to my grandma’s house for dinner. We spent a happy time there.

I had loads of fun. 

 This Eid was when I was 9 years old. I went to my grandparent’s house to celebrate Eid. I got up at 5:30 in the morning, and went to bathroom to have a bath. I dressed myself in new clothes. I wore a green and peach coloured frock. The men of the family – my grandfather, my father, my uncle and my cousin brother went to the mosque for prayer. We women – my mother, aunt, cousins, other relatives, sister and I prayed at home.

We had 3 goats this year. One was very young, one was very old and one was a fighter cock. The goats were kept next to the gate of our house. The fighter started a fight with the old goat. They started butting each other. I called my father and my uncle and they stopped the fight.

The butcher came at 8^o clock. We started the sacrifice. My uncle first sacrificed his goat, and then my father and then my grandfather. The butcher started cutting the meat into pieces. We distributed meat to our relatives. We also distributed for some poor.  All the three days we had biryani, biryani, biryani.

The day after Eid we went Vellore to visit my maternal grandmother. We went by bus. I reached at night. I ate my dinner and slept. The next day I saw another goat’s sacrifice.  I went to a shop and bought Uno. My cousin, my sister and I started playing.  We played Uno all day.

There was a very big house warming in the evening. Everyone had come. We helped serving the food.  I ate biryani again and I ate chicken 65 and bread halwa. 

My Eid was fun because I went to my grandparents house, met all my relatives and played with so many cousins.

In the morning of Eid, we woke-up at 4^o’clock and my sisters and I wore new clothes and got ready while my mother and grandma cooked the breakfast - Egg-pie and Ceylon Rice bread and my father helped my brothers get ready. The previous night our cousin sister had applied henna for all of us.

We prayed Fajr and ate sweets and got ready to go for Eid Prayer in Eid Musalla arranged by Unity Public School, but we got there late, so we went to the big mosque in Adayar and performed our Eid prayer. We met our friends and relatives and wished them Eid Mubark. We came back home and ate our breakfast and wished our neighbours. Our father bathed the goat and we were waiting for the butcher to come, but it was taking such a long time, so my father decided to take the goat to the butcher shop and sacrificed the goat there. We packed and distributed the 1/3rd of the meat for poor people and 1/3rd for our friends, neighbours & relatives and other 1/3rd for ourselves. We ate our lunch and took some rest and planned to go out to beach, but our relatives visited our home, so we didn’t.