A fun and interactive Eid celebration event brought together all the different communities in Haslingden.
Based at Haslingden Library, the event was organised by The Friends of Haslingden Library and artist Tom Byrne. It offered workshops, storytelling, puppet making and also showed a 100-year-old animation.
The event was made possible by microgrants from The Haslingden Big Lamp Project – a shopfront regeneration scheme funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Rossendale Borough Council.
Ottoman Art and Illustration put on popular workshops to create 2D lanterns and there were pictures to colour in and a popular Mehndi – henna – hand painter. Hina Qureshi presented ‘Mango Kahani’ which is Urdu for story and in it she narrated her journey from Pakistan to England and spoke about her love of mango. She said: “I wrote it because I love mangoes; Mango Kahani is a simple story from my childhood and it celebrates diversity and it is very interactive. “We also celebrate the kite festival in the story, which is very traditional in Pakistan.”
Fourteen-year-old Arwa Rahman loved making her lantern and said it would be hanging in her window at home. She said: “We have had three days of Eid. We have eaten a lot of food and I had three different outfits one for each day. I think this has been really fun here and there are things for everyone of all ages.” The free samosas and pakora also proved popular.
Sobiya Bibi was visiting with her daughter Sukainah, seven, who also made a lantern. She said: “At Eid, my sister and brother-in-law all came with their children to our house and we made many dishes. The day after we all went to Manchester’s Heaton Park and all the children enjoyed it.” Upstairs at the library lots of children got creative and made shadow puppets. Max, eight, enjoyed making a Spiderman puppet with a blue body. He said he enjoyed doing the drawing. Teddy, four, made his shadow puppet to represent his baby brother. The workshop was led by Alice Rowbottom with help from Aimee Williamson.
Later on the room was transformed into a cinema space for the screening of the animation of ‘The Adventured of Prince Achmed’.The film, which was created by Lotte Reiniger was based on the stories from A Thousand and One Nights and it is the earliest surviving full-length Feature animation, originally seen in September 1926. Children sat on picnic blankets and tucked into popcorn and sweets while Chris Davies provided an original musical original score he wrote to accompany the animation.