Islamic Amsterdam today celebrates the end of Ramadan with the Sugar Festival. The date of the Sugar Feast is determined by seeing the first crescent moon, just after the new moon. This year, the holiday coincidentally coincided with Ascension Day.
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At the Dar El Huda mosque in Osdorp, visitors gather for joint prayer. Normally this happens in the mosque, but because of the corona measures many meetings moved outside. Before the prayer, Abdelkader Belhadj addresses the Muslims in both Dutch and Arabic.
According to the visitors, the atmosphere is good, partly due to the weather: “It was fun. Much better, with that fresh air on the side. In such a mosque it quickly gets stuffy.” During the prayer it was called not to visit family, but to celebrate the end of Ramadan via Facetime or by telephone.
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According to Abdelkader, the Sugar Feast is not only for Muslims. “You should see it as a celebration of connection. It is for both Muslims and non-Muslims.”
Cookie party
Fatimzahra Baba also provides a connection to the neighborhood with its SAAAM Foundation. This year she is renaming the Sugar Festival into the cookie festival. During Ramadan, volunteers from the foundation worked in collaboration with restaurant Meram to prepare meals for the elderly, the homeless and undocumented. They also got the special biscuits from different cultures today.
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