Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2017 1:48 pm

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Congregants gathered at Valley Stream’s Masjid Hamza mosque on Sunday to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the first of two major annual Islamic holidays.

Attendees greeted one another with a customary “Eid mubarak!” (Eid means “celebration” and ubarak means “blessed” in Arabic.) Behind the building, in the rear parking lot, celebrants indulged in snacks, juice and tea between prayers.

Not every Muslim opened the Eid al-Fitr holiday on Sunday, however. Because it relies on a lunar calendar, the festival marking the start of the new month varies depending on location. Saudi Arabia’s High Judicial Court announced that, based on confirmed sightings of Eid’s new moon crescent, the first day of Eid al-Fitr would be Sunday, June 27, but some countries celebrated on Monday.

Eid al-Fitr means “festival of breaking the fast” and marks the end of Ramadan. Eid is an official holiday in all Muslim-majority countries — and beginning next year, the Valley Stream school districts will recognize Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha on the school calendar.

Mufti Mohammad Farhan, the imam for the 9 a.m. prayer, focused on four messages in his sermon. The first was to be grateful for the good you did during Ramadan. “Whatever good you were not able to do that you really wanted to do, seek repentance and ask for the strength to do it in the future,” he said.

Farhan also stressed that celebration is more than feasting and giving gifts: “Celebration in Islam actually means to connect yourself, rejuvenate yourself.”

He urged congregants to keep an anchor to the mosque, and take the opportunity to re-commit themselves to their religion. “If you have a boat, if you have a yacht, which is expensive, it’s going to drift away if the wind and storms are out there,” he said.

Lastly, Farhan told congregants to honor the blessing and mercy of the holy day.

“I think people are really enjoying and benefiting,” he said. “Individually, yes, there might be a lot of issues and things that are going on in the community itself. But yes, it’s one day that they forget for a few minutes.”