Al Mawlid

After my first born woke up form her nap this afternoon. I took my 4 months old upstairs and we hung out for a while in her attic room. Her room is nice and cozy, with nice, thick, old, wooden rafters on the ceiling.

I set my four months old on a blanket on the floor. She was being entertained by her older sister, and followed her with her gaze everywhere she went until she disappeared behind some still unpacked boxes from our last move!
Eventually she re-appeared with a forgotten poem book that I used to sing from (back when I was in Egypt), with all my girl friends on our weekly gatherings.
She brought the book and sat next to me, and started humming and moving her eyes on the book pretending to read it.
I smiled and took the book from her and started singing, remembering and smiling some more.
I was blessed with this nice afternoon, reminded by this random event that this month is actually the month of our beloved Prophet Mohammadʻs( peace and blessings be unto him) birth.

All the poems in the book are poems in praise of our prophet((peace and blessings be unto him).

So the title of this post "Al Mawlid" is the Arabic word for "The Birth". The date of the birth celebration is going to be on March 9th. So all you Muslims reading this post,including myself(I like how I think Lots of people read my blog!) Its recommended to fast this day, mark your
calenders.

Iʻd also like to share with you a special childhood Mawlid memory:)

I remember my father buying a different "ʻaroosat al Mawlid"(a big sculpted candy doll) for each of us girls (Mind you there were FOUR of us! thank you baba!). For my lone bother he bought him"ʻarees al Mawlid" (a big sculpted knight, holding a sword, and riding a horse made of candy), yea I know, Egyptians are crazy cool! I think itʻs an Egyptian Mawlid tradition, that is found no where else in the world.
For my mom my dad used to get her a Mawlid candy box, which of course we all ate. (How did we not loose all our teeth by the next Mawlid? Itʻs a mystery)

I miss walking in Egyptʻs narrow streets in old Cairo, musing at all the hand crafted doll and knight candy sculptures displays, waiting to be picked up by one very lucky tiny Egyptian hand.
I miss singing the praise poems with my friends, and I miss visiting family with Mawlid candy gift boxes. I guess I just miss home.

So hereʻs a little gift for you, some Mawlid Chantings, Videos and more videos just for you!

Btw, the top Photo is the only photo I could find that slightly resembles the candy dolls. They had the same big dresses but the actual doll was made from candy the clothes were made with construction paper. Maybe they donʻt make them out of candy anymore!

Happy Mawlid everyone:)

Peace