Can You Find my Eid Presents? by A.M. Dassu
This is a timely guest blog from A.M. Dassu today as we spotted on twitter that her daughter Hana had found the Eid presents today! Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate!
Why I wrote Can You Find My Eid Presents? for all children By A. M. Dassu
Every year my daughter Hana helps me with the Eid presents. We make lists of what we need to buy for each family member, choose the best most reasonably priced presents, order them and hide them until the day before Eid, when we wrap them and put them out for display.
The excitement on the night before Eid is always palpable. After a month of fasting, we’re excited to see our family and friends, to exchange presents and eat lots of delicious food together.
Eid has always been like this, except for the presents. When I was younger, we always got money. Specifically, £1 from each person. If we were lucky, we might get £5 from one family member. But it added up and the first thing we did was rush off to spend some of it on penny sweets in the corner shop. It was always my favourite day of the year.
We started exchanging presents instead of money probably sometime when I was at college. I remember buying beauty products and socks or similar for the adults and at least three toys or books per child. And when my own children were born, family members would ask them what they’d like, and they’d always get a big special toy with lots of money to spend afterwards too.
I’d take my children to the toy store and give them a budget in which to spend on their siblings presents. Usually no more than £10, so each year not only did they receive, they also gave.
When I was asked to write about Eid, I was inspired by my favourite book of all time, Where’s Spot? My aunt bought it for me with the accompanying soft toy and I read it till I was way too old for it! I think it was the first book that showed me how important it is to want to turn the page.
In Can You Find My Eid Presents?, I wanted to create an interactive story just like in Where’s Spot? but with an emotive narrative in which all children could see themselves. I wanted to, as in all of my books so far, show something that not everyone may have experienced and make it utterly relatable. Any child could imagine the sheer panic of losing all the presents the night before a special occasion or festival! And I was so lucky that Junissa Bianda brought her own magic and illustrated it so beautifully with lots of details to pore over on each page.
Eid is a really special occasion for Muslims, it’s about being thankful for everything you have and sharing food, time and love with family and people in your community. I’m really looking forward to it, more so knowing that Hana has found the Eid presents! Phew!
I hope this story will be enjoyed by children from all backgrounds throughout the year, not just on Eid, and I hope it evokes lots of discussions around feelings, worry, festivals, sharing, family and love.