Eid Festival success

Glanymor and Tyisha Communities First has held its first ever Eid Festival in Llanelli.

The Festival was held on Saturday November 19th from 6pm-10pm at the Antioch Centre, Copperworks Road, Llanelli.

The event was in collaboration with two of its multi ethnic groups, the Ethnic Minority Help Association (EMHA) and the Women’s Only Group and was funded by the Community Cohesion Fund. The Festival was free and open to all.

Eid is an Arabic word meaning ‘Solemn Festival’. This Eid is second of two Eid festivals observed by Muslims annually and is known as Eid al-Adha .It is also commonly called “Greater Eid and the festival of Sacrifice” because it coincides with the 10th Day of the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The aim of celebrating this event in Llanelli was to show solidarity with the local Muslim community. This event was held to promote inter-religion dialogue, understanding and tolerance of other community’s customs and practices.

The event was attended by more than 100 people of all race, religion and ethnic groups. Chief Superintendent of the Dyfed-Powys Police Gwyn Thomas and Councillor John Jones attended and met local Muslim elders and officers of EMHA.

Chief Superintendent Thomas said: “It was brilliant to see all the different people together and enjoying. A remarkable achievement I would suggest. I also found the evening insightful and interesting learning more about Eid and the Muslim religion and culture.”

Children and women from the ethnic minority community wore their colourful festive dresses specially tailored for such occasions. A dance workshop was held by a Professional Indian dancer Sarita Sood to teach participants an Indian dance for joyous occasions. A DJ plus Singers ‘Desire Sounds’ played celebratory songs, while women and children held a fashion parade and went around the hall displaying different ethnic dresses that included sarees, shawar chemise, lehenga choli and kurta pyjama.

Traditional foods prepared for Eid Celebrations in the Muslim world, was served by participants to enable members of other communities to taste and appreciate the efforts that go into preparing such food.

After dinner a live band and singers from Birmingham sang songs in different ethnic languages such as Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi.

On the sidelines of main event, different workshops included Greeting Card making, Henna painting, and Sari tying were held. Children enjoyed the card making workshop and remained busy throughout the event. Women and girls had their hands painted in traditional henna tattoos and women tried to learn the skill of sari tying.

Trysordy CIC was asked to deliver a creative workshop during the above event. All materials used were sourced from the Scrapstore and recycled to make greeting cards for all occasions, especially Eid and Christmas ones, as both of these celebrations occur around this time of year.

The event was very well attended by families and 30 children – a good mix of boys and girls from pre-school to teenagers plus some of their parents spent a great deal of time making card.

Communities First Development Officer Farah Aziz said: “This was an attempt to bring different parts of the community together, particularly in circumstances where they would not normally meet, to promote community cohesion.

“This event was meant to encourage people living alongside each other to live with mutual understanding and respect. “