Hajj & Eid Advent calendar

Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha is just around the corner and I realised I’ve had this post sitting in drafts for a little while now, I knew I wouldn’t get it to you anytime soon, but almost a year? That’s crazy, or just lazy. Well, at least I made it before Hajj passes this year, I hope this gives you some ideas for things to do with your kids. I’m not sure what I’m doing yet, but probably something similar. If you need more activity and craft ideas, don’t forget to check out my Ramadan Activities post, some of them can definitely be used as Hajj activities as well. Read my very old post below.

I know Hajj and Eid has already passed, and it’ll be almost another year before they appear again. For a long time now I have been wanting to incorporate more Islamic based activities or themes into our everyday lives. It’s not only about making things fun but also about encouraging a joy for learning Islamic related content. I was scrolling through Facebook and saw a picture posted by Confessions of a Muslim Mommoholic. It inspired me to create something similar with/for my son. Here’s my version.

I wish I had thought about this earlier, so I had had more time to plan and create a better poster, but considering it was already the 1st of Dhul-Hijjah I had to be quick and get going. My poster was pretty simple, so I won’t delve into heavy instructions, I’m sure if any of you decided to do this you could come up with posters much better than mine. But here’s my simple guide. I stuck a square black piece of card onto poster paper and decorated it with gold glitter glue. With some yellow paint I drew a little box (Maqam e Ebrahim) and with a circular sponge tool my son (with my help) dotted in white to represent the many people during Hajj. For the calendar portion, I cut pieces of paper, folded them over and stapled the edges, then using craft pegs from a discount store I pegged these to some wool I attached to the poster card. These were labelled 1-13, 1 being the first day of Dhul-hijjah and 13 being the last day of the Hajj.

Each day there was an opportunity to open one of the labelled pockets and take something out (again, I wish I had more time to come up with some better ideas for these pockets, but all in all I was pretty pleased with it).

Day 1: M&Ms

Day 2: Gummy Lollies

Day 3: Mini Marshmallows

Day 4: Money (in coins)

Day 5: Small toy car

Day 6: Try on Eid clothes

Day 7: Mini Marshmallows

Day 8: Make a footprint

Day 9: Try on Ihram

Day 10: Small toy car (Eid)

Day 11: Money (note)

Day 12: Dates and Zam Zam water

Day 13: Crayons

Before opening a pocket each day, we would discuss different things about Hajj, we discussed that the clothing worn is called Ihram and that it is white, we discussed the circling of the Kabah is called Tawaaf and we also discussed the Maqam Ebrahim (my son knows the story of Prophet Ebrahim (AS) well, thanks to Zaky DVDs, but on discussing this I realised he didn’t know what the word footprint meant, which lead to the activity on day 8. We also watched numerous youtube videos of Hajj as well viewed different pictures, from the Kabah, to people in Ihram.

All in all despite the rush, I’m proud of what my son and I gained from the experience, what he learned (as little as it may have been) and that it gave us an opportunity as a family to come together to learn together. I know Eid is over for now, but hopefully this might help as a guide for some of you for next year, I know it will definitely remind me, and give me motivation to up my game next time, in shaa Allah.

What will you be doing with the kids for Hajj and Eid this year?