Mawlid an Nabi

We're baaaack!  After a truly enjoyable break of not paying attention to a calendar and what "should" be done, our family is off of winter break and back to the grind.  Somehow having a schedule does make me more productive and here we are back to researching holidays.  First one for 2014 is Mawlid an Nabi which is an Islamic holiday that celebrates the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.  It is fixed as the 12th day of the month of Rabi I in the Islamic calendar.  Mawlid means birthday of a holy figure and al-Nabi means prophet.  This day is celebrated by many Muslims throughout the Middle East but not in Saudi Arabia or certain sects of Islam.  This is a super easy holiday to explain because the kids know and love birthdays.  So a birthday for a founder of a world religion was super easy to grasp.

I read that this holiday, like many Muslim holidays is celebrated by doing charity work or good deeds for others.  This led me to a craft idea I saw on crayola.com, which was to create a good deed calendar.  The boys do a chocolate advent calendar every year leading up to Christmas.  This is a similar idea except behind the doors is something nice you can do for someone else.  So I had my 4 and 6 year old each make a small calendar with five doors and in those doors five good deeds.   It's a fun craft and a nice way to remind us to be nice- especially when the weather is dreary and chilly and we may not be moving around enough and feeling not so nice.

Materials Needed:

  1. Two pieces of paper
  2. Something to color or decorate paper with (crayons, paint, markers etc)
  3. scissors
  4. glue or tape

Instructions:

  1. First take the top sheet of paper that will contain the "doors"  and make the openings.  For the kids and I we folded the paper in different spots and made our cuts so that when reopened it looked like a little flap that could open and close.  (Repeat for as many doors as you would like)
  2. When finished lay cut paper over the bottom paper and glue or tape together.
  3. Have children think of nice things they could do behind each door and have them write it or help then write down.
  4. Close all flaps and decorate the paper as you wish.
  5. Our final step was to swap papers so that each could do the tasks their brother had thought of.
Cut the "doors" into the first sheet of paper.

Cut the "doors" into the first sheet of paper.

Here's ours after the cuts

Here's ours after the cuts

Putting glue on the paper.

Putting glue on the paper.

Decorate page as you wish.

Decorate page as you wish.

There you go- all done!

There you go- all done!

 

For our food we made date candy.  I like the recipe because it sticks with my clean eating resolution for the New Year.  Dates are considered a delicacy in many Muslim countries and are often associated with celebration so this recipe was primed to be a winner for us.

Ingredients:

  1. 1 cup of medjool dates
  2. 2 tablespoons of water
  3. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  4. 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seed
  5. 1/2 cup of fresh ground walnuts
  6. warm honey
  7. fine ground almonds
Close up of our ground walnuts- not totally appetizing in picture, but I assure you its Walnut-tastic!

Close up of our ground walnuts- not totally appetizing in picture, but I assure you its Walnut-tastic!

Ingredients combined and rolled.

Ingredients combined and rolled.

Honey drizzled or in some cases globbed on top and rolling in the almond meal.

Honey drizzled or in some cases globbed on top and rolling in the almond meal.

Method:

  1. blend dates and water to make a paste like mixture.
  2. Put walnuts in a food processor or blender to make into walnut meal 
  3. Combine dates and walnut meal and add cardamon and cinnamon
  4. Roll the mixture into small 1 inch diameter balls (if too runny add more walnut meal)
  5. Drizzle a little honey over the top of each ball
  6. Roll in the fine ground almonds
  7. Enjoy
First bite picture here- he's mid-assessment before the "These are awesome" statement was made.

First bite picture here- he's mid-assessment before the "These are awesome" statement was made.

These went immediately after we made them with requests to do it again tomorrow.  It was so tasty and a very sweet celebration treat for the Prophet of Islam's birthday.  Enjoy Mawlid an Nabi and Happy New Year everyone!



Waqf al Arafa

Hajj, which is the fifth pilar of Islam, is the pilgrimage to Mecca, occurring on the 7th-12th days of the month of Dhu al-Hajja in the Islamic calendar. This is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and all able-bodied Muslims are required to participate at least once in their lifetimes. Several rituals are performed during this pilgrimage, including walking counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, a cube-shaped building representing the Muslim direction of prayer, and drinking from the Zamzam well.  Waqf al Arafa is the Islamic observance day during Hajj when pilgrims pray for forgiveness and mercy.  Pilgrims stay awake at night to pray on the hill of Arafat, the site where Muhammad delivered his last sermon.

Waqf al Arafa/Day of Arafa is significant in that it is said that a Muslim who fasts for this holiday receives atonement for the both; previous year’s and the coming year’s sins.  Hajj is performed for many spiritual reasons.  The first, to follow in the footsteps of Muhammad, Ibrahim (Abraham), and Ismail.  Another, Hajj is a virtual simulation of the journey to the afterlife.

I found a nice, easy to understand explanation of Hajj here  

For the boys I said this is a holiday for people who are Muslim to make a trip to the sites that are important to their religion.  I told them these sites are important because some of the important things that happen in Islam occurred at these sites.  They wanted to know what the sites were so I read them this:

The sites are: 

  • Holy Mosque in Makkah (Mecca)- The holiest shrine of Islam, the Kaaba (more information in the link-  is what Muslims are expected to face when they are praying), is situated at the heart of the Holy Mosque's courtyard.
  • Prophet's Mosque in Medina (which contains the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed and is therefore one of Islam's most sacred shrines.)
  • Arafat-  here Muslims believe Adam and Eve, separated for 200 years following their expulsion from the Garden of Eden, recognized each other and were reunited.  Here too they were forgiven by Allah.
  • Muzdalifah- is a valley between Mina and Mount Arafat where pilgrims on Hajj spend the night and gather pebbles to hurl at the pillars of Mina.
  • Mina- lies between Mecca and Muzdalifah.  Here there are white pillars representing the devil which pilgrims cast the pebbles they gathered at Muzdalifah.

For our craft we decided to make a pinwheel.  I had debated about something involving throwing pebbles- but I have a highly impressionable 18 month old who already likes to throw things so pinwheel won.  While our pinwheels sometimes go around more then 7 times, I did like that the edges of the pinwheel would be circling around the center piece- which helped give a visual of a pilgrim circling the Kaaba.  We even made our pinwheels turn counter clockwise.   

For our pinwheels we used paper, rulers,  and paper fasters.  For decoration purposes we used crayons and, my favorite, washi tape.

What you need.

What you need.

To begin we folded down the corner of our standard size paper to make a square by cut off the excess rectangle. 

I then told the boys to decorate, but they wanted to draw after we had made the pinwheel.  So first we folded the square in half the opposite way from the original fold so that we would have guiding lines for our next cuts.  Then we drew a circle around the center of the square (about an inch maybe inch and a half diameter) and cut down our guidelines until we reached the circle.

Cutting along the lines to the center circle.

Cutting along the lines to the center circle.

Once the cuts were made the boys folded the corners down to the center of the circle and secured the ends with tape.

Folded and secured to the center.

Folded and secured to the center.

Next step was to put the fastener through the middle of the pinwheel.  I had to cut a small hole to get through the tape.

Decorating his pinwheel.

Decorating his pinwheel.

Finally we put the fastener through the wheel and then through the hole in the ruler. We fastened the clip leaving room for the wheel to be able to move without much resistance.   Then we watched our pinwheels spin counter clockwise!

It spins!

It spins!

Cheesy pose time!

Cheesy pose time!

 

When researching Hajj, I saw that often people will travel with bread, although devotees will have places to eat as there are food stands and restaurants ready to serve those who are completing the Hajj.  For our food I decided to give a popular Middle Eastern bread a try, the pita.  I again looked to smittenkitchen for the recipe.  I did not tweak it-as it was my first attempt at pita, so for the directions go to the link!

Our experience with the recipe: 

I had my middle son help with all the measuring and he happily threw everything into the mixer. 

Scooping ingredients.

Scooping ingredients.

He also was happy to get to work the mixer, as his older brother seems to always make it there first.  We mixed the first 20 seconds with the paddle and then ten minutes with the hook.  I have never seen my Kitchenaid move so much before as it did during that ten minutes of kneading.  However all the hard work was worth it as the dough was very soft. 

Watching the machine work and shake.

Watching the machine work and shake.

After the kneading we put the dough in a covered container and I drizzled some of the oil my husband bought for me on his last trip to Jordan over the top of the dough and put it into the fridge over night.  I took a few peeks and smooshed the bread down to make sure it wasn't growing too much.

The next day was go time.   So we preheated the oven for an hour before cooking time and got to work with working and waiting and working and waiting for the dough to be right.  

 

Happily patting the dough down.

Happily patting the dough down.

Rolling is incredibly exciting sometimes.

Rolling is incredibly exciting sometimes.

This recipe was a bit putsy at times, so I was hoping the end result would be worth it.   It was.   The bread was totally delicious although the first few batches I did not get to rise.  I think its because my dough was in a chilly metal bowl and took a little longer to warm to the proper temperature.  The last few breads that went into the oven seemed to work the best.  The dough was incredibly soft from being at more of a room temperature and they puffed up wonderfully.  I also had flipped some of the pita and found they turned out nicer if I did not flip them.  They were so tasty- and I will definitely be making these again!

Our final bread, complete with pockets- although in photo it looks a little like naan. 

Our final bread, complete with pockets- although in photo it looks a little like naan. 

That's all for Waqf al Arafa or Hajj- stay tuned for Eid al-Adha.  Thanks for reading!