1. What unique country/area is your family historically from?

2. Do you celebrate any interesting holidays specific to your culture? “Yes, we have a holiday called Eid. Eid is the celebration after 30 days of fasting sunrise to sundown and involves a lot of gifts and new clothes”.

3. How does this holiday differ compared to a regular one in the United States? “What makes it most unique is that it is after 30 long days of fasting and is just a time to relax and celebrate that lasts 3 days.”

4. What do you find most unique about this holiday/ritual? “What’s most unique about this holiday is that during this holiday all of Milwaukee’s Muslim population gathers at Humboldt Park to pray in congregation with a gathering of more than 2000 people! Everyone is in new clothes and everyone (regardless of being a stranger or not) hugs after the prayer and says Eid Mubarak!. That literally means “Eid greetings” and is the same in every language spoken by the Muslim population.”

5. Have you ever participated in a ceremony/custom specific to your born culture? “There are so many cool customs in Pakistani weddings, here are just a few…” Dholki- This is a custom of a wedding that happens a few days or weeks before the wedding. It basically is when the mothers, daughters and other women of the house gather at the bride’s or groom’s home to sing and dance. The whole house is decorated and all the women sing fast paced wedding songs (usually Bollywood) and play a percussion instrument known as a dholak (hence the name dholki). The bride is moved to the center of the room and the women sing songs about mother-in-laws and in praise of the bride. Mehndi- This is the ceremony after the dholki in which the groom and the bride are symbolically given henna (or mehndi) and are fed sweets. They are given their best wishes by family members and there are often dances that happen during this ceremony. Rukhsati- This is after the wedding in which the bride traditionally leaves the wedding with the groom’s family, this a really emotional time in which the bride’s family cries and wishes the couple best wishes. The bride and groom also traditionally have a quran placed over their head, this is to protect them from all forms of hardships.

6. Does your originated culture speak a different language? Can you speak it? {even a few words?} “Our language is called Urdu, I am fluent in the language. It is mutually intelligible with Hindi and is the reason why we watch so many Bollywood films.”

7. What is the coolest part of being apart of this culture? “An average American wedding lasts only a few hours, while a Pakistani wedding can last weeks or months! There are so many different traditions and customs of a Pakistani wedding that makes them so cool.”