On July 7th, the NSLI-Y Hindi academic year participants visited the homes of two Muslim faculty members at the Daly College, their host high school, in celebration of Eid al-Fitr. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, and means festival of breaking the fast. It is common for Muslim families to visit each other’s homes to celebrate Eid, and the NSLI-Y students were happy to participate in this tradition. At both homes, the students were joined by their language teacher, Dr. Rajopadoyay, who prepared the students with holiday greeting phrases in Hindi and Arabic and practiced Hindi vocabulary related to the holiday and traditional foods throughout the house visit. Both hosts made several foods for the students to taste, including Sevaiyan ki Kheer, a vermicelli based dessert topped with sliced almonds. The students enjoyed tasting the different foods, often pairing the sweet foods with spicy foods to balance out the flavors, as is commonly done in Indian cuisine.
Nicole’s host mother and sister took the opportunity to dress her in an Indian kurta outfit in celebration of Eid. Nicole greatly enjoyed wearing traditional Indian dress for her first time and going through the process of putting it on with her host sister and mother’s guidance.
