Celebrating Ramadan

Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims and celebrated during the 9th month of their calendar. Ramadan doesn’t follow the western calendar and instead follows the Lunar calendar meaning the month can change each year. This year the celebration starts on Monday, 12th April.

Muslims believe that it was during this month, that Allah revealed the first verses of the Quran, which is the Islamic sacred text to the Prophet Mohammed. This is known as ‘The Night of Power’ or in Arabic- Laylat al-Qadr.

Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan every day from dawn to sunset. This means that they do not eat or drink anything during the day. Fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam. They take part in fasting as it is meant to be a time of spiritual discipline where they focus on their relationship with Allah, take part in extra prayers and increase their charity and generosity within the wider community whilst following an intense study of the Quran. It is a time of joy, of celebration, all spent with their loved ones and at the end of Ramadan, there’s a three-day celebration called Eid where they break their fast.

We at 2Simple understand the importance of teaching Religious Education and therefore have highlighted some resources you can use within Purple Mash to teach your students about Ramadan.

You could set our Bad Habits poster as a 2Do. During Ramadan, Muslims try to give up a bad habit. Set your students a task to see what bad habits they should give up with our template here.

You could also set them a task to write a plan for Iftar (the evening meal); what Asian dishes are going to be served tonight?

We also have some activities to explore Islam further. Use this opportunity to see if your students can research Ramadan and see what traditions they can find. You can also set this task where they can write about the Five Pillars of Islam, fasting is one, but what are the others?

Finally, to celebrate Eid, we have several resources that can explore the celebration. Use our Eid Descriptive Writing template for your pupils to use their senses to describe the celebration. You could also see if your students can write an email to their friend to explain Eid using our 2Email Eid template here.

Let us know how your students are celebrating Ramadan by sharing pictures with us on Twitter or @PurpleMash, or on Facebook @2SimpleUK.