HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Wednesday was a festive day – coming at the end of a holy month for our Muslim neighbors.

The Festival of Eid marks the end of Ramadan, and across the Midstate, people gathered to celebrate.

At the Farm Show Complex – one last prayer service was held during this year’s month of Ramadan.

“This is not the regular prayer that we do every day. it’s just one that is very special and very specific for Eid,” Tahya Eldreny who was there celebrating said.

Eid al-Fitr is one of the most festive days of the year.

“It’s such a special day and I’m glad we do it in a big place like the Farm Show Complex because then we can all come together and see each other and just remember that we are here together,” Eldreny said.

Folks also came together at Harrisburg’s Hadee Mosque. There they also prayed and wished each other the traditional greeting – Eid Mubarak.

“We not only have to serve God. But we have to serve mankind,” community president Mohammed Lone, who emphasized kindness as a key part of the holiday, said.

Food and drinks were served during daylight hours, for the first time since the beginning of the month of Ramadan – during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset each day. And on Eid, to end the month:

“We have a feast. Children get gifts,” Lone said.

This year, though, the annual celebration comes at a time when some things in the world are hard to celebrate.

“Billions of Muslims are celebrating. and it’s very difficult to put ourselves in that mode this year,” Lone said, speaking about Gaza.

“So we continue to remember our brothers and sisters, and we continue to ask for immediate ceasefire,” he said.

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Lone also called for peace more broadly.

“Even an atrocity on a single human being, Islam rejects this,” he said. “In general, human beings all want peace. Whether you’re Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu – does not matter. atheist – does not matter. So that’s a commonality between us. Let’s come together with that.”

With a message, he said – both festive, and solemn – of love for all, and hatred for none

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