Invitation to celebrate end of Ramadan
A celebration to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is being hosted at Federation of the Islamic Associations of New Zealand Porchester Rd centre, with an open invitation to its local community.
Ramadan is where adult Muslims from all over the world fast for a month during daylight. Eid is celebrated at the end of the Islamic month upon sighting of the new crescent moon.
Eid Gala 2023 is back after the huge success of last year’s inaugural event, where about 6000 community members turned up from all ethnicities and background to celebrate the day with their local Muslims.
This year’s Eid Gala Festival will be on Saturday, May 6, hosted by local charity Human Care New Zealand, in conjunction with FIANZ and other affiliated organisations.
It’s free for all to attend and will feature a large variety of cuisines from around the world, a display of Islamic culture and teachings, a tour inside the centre, and free games and entertainment for kids.
The Gala aims to create a family fun day when kids can enjoy games and adults enjoy the food and culture. It will be held in open air with ample parking available and parking wardens helping in guiding traffic.
Event spokesperson Reyakat Khan says, ‘‘it is about sharing the blessings of Eid with the wider community and spreading the peace and brotherhood with everyone around us. Our main goal is to make our children – who are our future – aware of the significance of day and how it needs to be shared with everyone around us..
‘‘We also want to focus on fostering good relationships within the local community by removing any misconceptions about Islam, that breed Islamophobia . . . sharing educational materials about the faith and its practices separating the truth from myth,’’ Khan says. something you can throw money at to fix it.’’
Deputy government statistician and deputy chief executive for census and collection operations Simon Mason confirmed the turnout at the last census in 2018 was poor in Counties Manukau.
‘‘That is why it is critically important that people complete the census – so their communities are counted ... ’’
Mason said this year’s event was designed to address barriers to participation, including having more collectors and alternate formats for people to complete it and support a wider range of people.
A spokesperson for Stats NZ said it would still have field teams collecting people’s responses until May 3 and would be running census support events until June 4.
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