The Muslim Student Association (MSA) celebrated the Eid-al-Adha holiday (Festival of the Sacrifice) on Thursday with a carnival on Miller Lawn. Like the traditions that are part of the holiday, the carnival served to bring together a community during one of the most important dates of the Muslim calendar.

“It’s about the community coming together for unity and to represent what Muslims do on the holiday,” MSA President Mariam Parwez said. “It’s more to show the non-Muslim population about Muslim culture.”

Officially, Eid-al-Adha began Saturday and concluded yesterday. The holiday is meant to commemorate Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son to Allah. Muslims celebrate the holiday globally at the end of Hajj, an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

“We get dressed up in our new clothes with our family and read the Quran,” former MSA member Raven Rafiq said. “We sit together and we cook, eat and laugh.”

It is called the Festival of the Sacrifice because of the meat that is sacrificed for the occasion. That sacrifice is then shared with family and friends that come together as they exchange greetings and gifts.

“It’s about unity between family and friends,” Parwez said. “The new clothes we wear show purity and cleanliness.”

Featured at this celebration was a bounce house, food, music that could be heard in the neighboring classrooms, and other carnival games. Members of MSA sold tickets for food and games for 25 cents each.

“The event is really fun,” student Ashley Jones said. “It’s a link for students to experience Muslim tradition in a fun and diverse way.”

The carnival went from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., but the cultural event was not all fun and games. Students were also given information about the holiday that brought them there.

“More than anything, we want to fight misconceptions seen in media and show the Pace community [that Islam] isn’t what is illustrated in the media,” Parwez said. “It’s not as conservative as it is thought to be.”

MSA wanted to bring recognition to the holiday by hosting this Student Development and Campus Activities (SDCA) funded event. Being the first religious event of its kind here at Pace, it served as a fun introduction to another culture and their traditions.

“It’s important for people that have deep cultural roots and traditions to celebrate them,” said Campus Chaplain Sister Susan Becker, who attended the event. “It’s important for the community to celebrate the richness of its diversity.”

An important standard of Islam is that all food has to be halal. Halal is Arabic for permissible. All food must follow precedents set by the Quran which doesn’t allow the eating of meat, blood, or food that was not properly blessed.

“We don’t eat at Kessel,” Rafiq said. “Food has to be halal and Kessel doesn’t offer those options. Currently we are trying to get halal in Kessel. That would be great.”