c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When Salma Kazmi, now 30, was a child in Brookline, Mass., the end of Ramadan was not quite the festive celebration her parents experienced in a Muslim-majority country.

“My parents tried to re-create the holiday they knew back in Pakistan,” Kazmi said, but didn’t succeed. She recalls long and boring road trips to visit relatives.

As American Muslims await the beginning of the Nov. 3 or Nov. 4 Eid al-Fitr _ the holiday marking the end of a holy month of fasting _ Kazmi’s experience reflects a common dilemma for immigrant families. Eid in the United States isn’t the three-day nationwide celebration it is in Muslim countries.

While some, like Kazmi’s parents, long for the Eid of far away places, Muslims born or raised in the United States are less likely to look over their shoulders at celebrations abroad. Many say they are determined to make Eid a truly joyous _ and authentically American _ holiday.

“When it comes to Eid, there is a huge gap between American-raised Muslims and those from abroad,” said Mohja Kahf, a poet and professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, who was raised by parents from Syria.

For both first- and second-generation immigrants, the difference between an American Eid and the holiday in a Muslim country is undeniable.

“If you come from North Africa, or the Middle East, or Southeast Asia, you are used to celebrating Eid as a government holiday with millions of other people,” said Habibe Ali, operations manager at the Islamic Society of North America in Plainfield, Ind.. “Here, you realize that you are the only one of your neighbors that is celebrating.”

Haldun Evrenk came to the U.S. from Turkey seven years ago to attend graduate school in Boston. What he has seen here “doesn’t look like Eid to me.”

In Turkey, as in most Muslim-majority countries, businesses close during Eid.

“You visit with relatives and neighbors and even people you don’t know, and children all get candy, just like Halloween,” said Evrenk, who, like many Muslims here in the United States, only plans to take off part of a workday when Eid arrives.

Taking time off from work and pulling children out of public schools are two major reasons Muslims find it difficult to fully celebrate Eid here.

Mosque administrators are often willing to provide letters explaining the holiday to employers, and most are understanding, according to Muslim leaders around the country. But some Muslim parents complain that their children’s school absences, though excused, can mar an attendance record and put them behind their classmates.

Planning to take even one day off for the three-day holiday is complicated by the Muslim lunar calendar, which depends on an actual sighting of the crescent moon to mark the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. Muslim Americans won’t know until Wednesday night around 10 p.m. whether the holiday will begin on Thursday or Friday.

That uncertainty also makes it tricky _ and expensive _ to organize another Eid tradition: gathering in large groups for the Eid morning prayers, which include ritual chanting, a sermon and the formal Muslim prayer of prostration.

Because there are no Muslim-owned spaces large enough to accommodate the large crowds, mosques in a geographic region usually join up to rent out a major public space.

In the Los Angeles area, for example, mosques have rented out the Los Angeles Convention Center for both Thursday and Friday. It’s an expensive proposition, local Muslims said, because they will only use the facility on one of the two days.

As the Eid holiday travels backward through the solar calendar _ now inching closer to the summer months _ the logistical problems may ease.

For some, an American Eid can be a lovely celebration.

Hujrah Wahhaj, of New York City, one of nine children of the prominent Muslim-American preacher Siraj Wahhaj, fondly recalls the Eid holidays she knew as a child, celebrated in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park.

“The place used to be packed with Muslims. We would fry chicken, make potato salad and have a barbeque. The kids would double-dutch (with jump ropes) and go hiking. People from all different mosques came, and the feeling of unity was the best part,” said Wahhaj, 24, noting that in Brooklyn this year each mosque will celebrate Eid prayers on its own.

Because they may not have experienced Eid overseas, “indigenous” Muslim Americans _ be they African-Americans, recent converts or second-generation children of immigrants _ are often better able to create new holiday traditions here.

Muslim immigrants tend to take a “passive” approach to the holidays, said Kahf, the Arkansas scholar, because they are used to the culture around them providing a festive atmosphere. But living as a religious minority requires a more active approach.

She said she goes to extremes, with the help of her husband, to make Eid a special holiday for her three children. “We buy them a lot of presents _ maybe too many _ and decorate the house and make sweets for the neighbors,” Kahf said.

From her perspective, Eid in the United States has its advantages, especially for women.

She said that when she experienced Eid in the Arab world, she found “the women don’t go to Eid prayers. They stay at home and bake cookies.”

Although the Prophet Muhammad specifically encouraged both men and women to attend the early morning prayers, few women in Muslim-majority countries do so. But in the U.S., it has become traditional for women to attend prayers alongside men.

“Women staying home during Eid prayers _ that’s a cultural thing,” said Habibe Ali of the Islamic Society of North America. “Here in this country, mosques are open to women, and women have become more involved. That’s just part of the American experience.”

MO/JL END RNS

Editors: To obtain photos of Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.