Eid in the Park Southend 2023

Two days ago, I visited “Eid in the Park”, held at nearby Garon’s Park.

According to Wikipedia “Eid al-Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice is the second and the largest of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son, Ishmael (Ismail), as an act of obedience to God’s command. However, before Abraham could sacrifice his son in the name of God, and because of his willingness to do so, God provided him with a ram to sacrifice in his son’s place. In commemoration of this intervention, animals are ritually sacrificed. Part of their meat is consumed by the family that offers the animal, while the rest of the meat is distributed to the poor and the needy. Sweets and gifts are given, and extended family members typically visit and are welcomed. The day is also sometimes called the Greater Eid. The celebration of Eid, however, is not mentioned in the Qur’an”.

I have often promoted and attended events held by our local Muslim community (see here for the report of my “Visit to my local mosque 2023 – Unity Iftaar”). While I had been undecided whether to visit this event (I had a lot on that day and these days lack the energy for outdoor events) I am glad I did, while not knowing quite what I was in for. Noting it was an all-day event, I decided to turn up early (I arrived at 9am), check out was going on, meet with old friends who would be there and leave after an hour or two. My first surprise was to see the numbers arriving, the great majority from the Muslim community, often arriving as families, including the elderly and children, dressed mostly in traditional dress and in celebration mood. A number greeted me, genuinely pleased to welcome an outsider to their special day.

I walked round the site and did indeed meet with some old friends, and exchanged pleasantries. I even met new friends. One was running a bookstall. I commented on two books that I saw that were about Jesus from a Muslim perspective, and pointed out I was a follower of the said Jesus. I was gifted the books, had a selfie taken together and was offered a glass of his delicious (non-alcoholic) home brew. While there were fun and food activities, things hadn’t quite yet got going. The main focus for the day was what took place on the main stage, which included a time of prayer and several speakers. I sat and listened awhile and while was said was pretty low key, a lot of what was said I wouldn’t disagree with as it was about living the good life and the need to prioritise caring for others.  

One of my jobs in days gone by was organising large open air community events, knowing how much was needed to pull these off, so I naturally took a professional interest in the organisational aspects of this event. While my time spent was too short to evaluate all that went on, I was impressed. I would love to share my feedback with the organisers. My main, very minor, criticism was disabled access (given these days I fall in that category). For example, the walk from the car park was quite long and the field used might have benefitted from being cut. But truly, I couldn’t fault the organisers, who did what was needed to make the event enjoyable for attendees, including the non-Muslims, many of which would turn up later. I did note it threatened to rain and wondered what were the contingencies, but happily the weather stayed fine.  

When I plugged the event beforehand on my Facebook page, one earnest Christian friend, whose views I respect and mostly share, commented “Seems an odd thing for a Christian to advertise”. My response was “I believe Jesus is THE Way to the Father, not just A way (and I won’t budge on this). I also believe the right approach to engaging with our Muslim friends is NOT by insisting they first have to accept this view before we can make further progress but rather on the basis of friendship and finding common ground. Of course they will use this opportunity to proclaim their beliefs (just as Christians in our camp traditionally do) but their events are always well organized and enjoyable”.

After attending the event, I couldn’t help but reflect on the Wikipedia statement: such occasions “honours the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son, Ishmael (Ismail), as an act of obedience to God’s command” which was reinforced by at least one of the speakers. Judaism and Christianity are both in agreement that Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son was something highly significant, the main disagreement being Jews and Christians believe the son in question was Isaac. I was reminded that the church I was connected with for much for most of my adult life, once had this text written on one of its walls: “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” Genesis 22:8.

This was Abraham’s response to his son’s enquiry “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (v7). While the story was about God testing Abraham and Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son (when God did indeed provide a lamb for sacrifice) and thus passing the test, there is an even greater significance. 2000 years ago, God sent His son, Jesus, to earth, who was willing to be the sacrifice and thereby take the punishment due to humans because of their sin. I suspect most of my Muslim friends won’t see it this way, but I am glad we can still be friends.