More than 10,000 people packed the Western Fair Agriplex Sunday to celebrate the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting.
“This festival today is a celebration or a commemoration of us breaking the fast,” said Imam Abd Alfatah Twakkal, chair of the London Council of Imams.
“This is important for us because it’s a sign of gratitude to God for having guided us and allowed us to fast and do our acts of worship during the month of Ramadan. At the same time, it’s a means of bringing the community together so that we can share in the joy, but also with the concerns that we have for our brothers and sisters who may be going through difficult circumstances in other places in the world, or even here locally.”
The festival featured a pair of prayers, followed by a family event with play equipment for the children.
Mosques around the city held their own prayers in the morning, so it is estimated that more than 20,000 Muslims were attending services Sunday.
“After a whole month of fasting and all of us were gathering, sacrificing, and worshiping the last part of today for us coming here, it’s a joyful day to commemorate the whole month of what we’ve done and the sacrifices that we had with the last time,” said Habib Habib, who was at the prayer with his family.
“Our community over the past few years has grown. We’ve gone from two centres to 10, and that’s not enough. That’s why we have to have places like the Western Fair to come and gather everybody here.”
Others called it a day of celebration with friends, neighbours, and family.
“It’s for the song, music, and blessing with this prayer and blessing with this gathering,” said Wafa Tabidi.
“We feel so happy, and we feel the love of the brothers and sisters being together. We are happy because we fast the whole month and now everybody is done.”
During his speech following the prayer, Twakkal focused on the importance of voting in the upcoming election. He spoke about finding a candidate who holds their values, and in their numbers, they can impact the vote.
Now that Ramadan has come to an end, Twakkal said now they will use the lessons learned going forward.
“The self-discipline and the selflessness,” said Twakkal.
“The point of Ramadan is that we acquire new habits of good, and we leave off bad habits. We continue with our striving and our struggling and with showing gratitude for the immense number of blessings that that we have and that we have been given.”
