Ayyám-i-Há celebration reconnects families to children’s classes

In the Rundle neighbourhood in Calgary, Alta., a celebration brought together around 80 people, including many children and their mothers.

A family whose children recently joined the Rundle children’s classes enjoy the celebration. Photo: Darren Hedley.

A team of children’s class teachers in the Rundle neighbourhood in Calgary, Alta. realized Ayyám-i-Há presented an opportunity to reconnect with children who had missed weeks or months of classes. The idea grew from there, and eventually, animators, junior youth and tutors joined in preparing for the celebration. They invited families of the participants of the educational activities, and on February 24^th, approximately 80 people came together, including children, junior youth, youth and around 10 mothers. Besides reinvigorating participation in the activities, the space provided an opportunity for families to meet one another, socialize, and deepen friendships.

The participants of the activities all contributed to the program. The celebration began with a few songs shared by the children, and a brief description of Ayyám-i-Há. Activity stations were set up for prayer book making, face painting and colouring. The junior youth set up game stations for two games they had created based on a text of the junior youth program called On Health and Well-being. The objective of one game was to name organs of the human body on a diagram that the junior youth had drawn out, and the other was a Jeopardy-style game with questions related to health. “It was really nice to see how the junior youth were really diligent about their stations and put a lot of effort into the game. It was related to the book they were studying, and they were taking it seriously,” commented Yassamin Erickson, an animator and tutor serving in the neighbourhood.

While the children were engaged with the games and craft stations, the teachers and animators conversed with the mothers in attendance. They asked about their thoughts on the classes, and whether they had noticed any changes in their children since they had started participating in the activities. As for the original goal, Mrs. Erickson said the teachers also made good use of the space “to reinvite [the children] to class and have them see their class[mates] again…The celebration motivated the children to come back.”