Welcoming the sacred month, a Hamilton Islamic school is celebrating Ramadan with a variety of fun and spiritual activities for students, staff and parents.
“It’s a month (where) you try to do your best,” 13-year-old Sarah Mohammed, a Grade 8 student at the Islamic School of Hamilton, told The Spec.
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“It’s kind of a reset button because it’s our spiritual moth where we realize our mistakes and we try our best to fix them throughout the year again; I love it how when everybody comes together and celebrates it.”
Lina Fantas, a fourteen-year-old Grade 8 student, said Ramadan is a time to be grateful.
“In Ramadan you spend a lot of time with your friends and family,” she said. “During Ramadan you are trying your best to be the best version or yourself.”
Early Planning
Mariam Mohamad, a Grade 3 teacher at the school, said the school has started planning Ramadan activities in September.
Now, she is teaching eight and nine-year-old students what the holy month of Ramadan means.
“How it connects to them spiritually, so it’s not all about abstaining from food and drink,” Mohammad said.
“At a young age they are not actually fasting yet, some of them are doing what they call half-fasting, so they try to not eat until lunchtime.”
Ramadan is the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.
In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.
Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to become closer to Allah through prayer, self-restraint, and good deeds.