At the end of Saturday, Kenza Fourati and her two enthusiastic children gathered around a decorative Ramadan calendar they had set up a month ago in their Brooklyn home.
“Come on, let’s turn it around,” Ms. Fourati said. Together, they flipped it to reveal the other side: “Eid Mubarak. The Mohyeldin Fourati family.” With the sun setting and the crescent moon spotted, they confirmed that Eid al-Fitr, the holiday signifying the end of Ramadan, would be the next day.
Decorating the house during Ramadan and Eid is a new tradition for Ms. Fourati, a model and co-founder of the brand Osay. As her children grow older, they ask more questions about their faith.
In Tunis, where Ms. Fourati, 39, grew up with a large family, Ramadan celebrations were a common sight. On the eve of Eid, she remembered running through the streets with friends as fireworks lit up the sky.
“This is how I grew up, and I want to give them a glimpse of how we grew up,” said Ms. Fourati, who is finding fun ways for her children to explore their Muslim identity.
Ms. Fourati then led her playful children to their bedroom to show them the outfits they would wear to a morning Eid prayer at Washington Square Park. She presented Idris, 6, with a white jebba and a red chechia, while for Dora, 8, she offered either a purple jebba with a gold belt or a black Palestinian thobe. Dora chose the purple dress, exclaiming, “It’s shiny, and it has more jewels.”
After a month of fasting, Eid al-Fitr is a joyous occasion for Muslims, marked by new outfits, festivals, special dishes, and visits with loved ones. But it all begins with the mothers in the households, who work their magic the day before.
In New York, home to nearly 800,000 Muslims, mothers are creating new traditions while carrying on the ones from their own childhoods.
Growing up on an island in Bangladesh, Mahima Begum and her siblings would rush to the local festival on Eid morning, returning to a feast prepared by their hardworking mother.
“We were doing nothing,” Ms. Begum recalled. “My mom was doing everything.”
Ms. Begum now continues the tradition by preparing an impressive Eid feast for her relatives in Brooklyn every year, starting early in the morning to cook dishes like beef biryani and goat korma.
Her daughter, Shompa Kabir, assists by making a special dessert, a ras malai cake, as a way to show appreciation for her mother’s hard work.
In the Bronx, Ramatoulaye Diallo enlisted the help of her daughters and daughter-in-law to prepare the Eid feast, featuring a Senegalese dish called thiebou yapp.
With no specific measurements, Ms. Diallo focused on cooking the marinated beef and yassa, a vermicelli dish, while her daughters set the table with a new tablecloth from Morocco.
“We don’t measure, we just cook,” Ms. Diallo said.
After setting up the table, Ms. Diallo’s daughters cleaned and prepared the house, continuing the tradition passed down by their mother from Senegal.
Ms. Diallo emphasized the importance of cleanliness on Eid, ensuring that everything is spotless for the celebration of the holy day with her daughters.
Ms. Ali is devising ways to introduce her 15-month-old daughter, Iman, to their cultural traditions, celebrating Eid with recreated traditions in their Brooklyn home alongside her husband.
Ms. Ali believes that preserving traditions helps maintain a sense of identity, passing down unwritten recipes and cultural practices to the next generation.
For Eid, they plan to have a picnic at the park with Afghan pasta and traditional sweets, creating their own mini mela in New York.
“It’s about quality, not quantity, right?” Ms. Ali expressed.
Every Eid, Ms. Ali learns a new recipe passed down from her maternal side, keeping the tradition alive. This year, the recipe is Afghan pasta topped with yogurt and dried mint.
Her husband, Mr. Mejia, has embraced learning Afghan dishes as well, contributing to the festivities by cooking in the kitchen while Ms. Ali prepares Iman’s Eid dress.