Auckland Eid Day organised the Saturday Night Pre-Ramadan Market at the Wesley Community Centre in Sandringham on June 13, 2015 from 4.30 pm till late.
The idea behind the market was to give the community an evening of special shopping for the festive month of Ramadan that started on Thursday 18 June, 2015.
Auckland Eid Day is a voluntary community lead organisation initially established as Almanar Trust in 2011. The organisation had taken the initiative to plan and organise annual events such as Eid-ul Fitr and Eid-ul-adha bringing together all the Muslim community in Auckland for a day of joy and happiness to celebrate the two big events of the Islamic calendar.
The community centre housed 35 merchandise and bulk food stalls from different ethnic backgrounds. The aim was to get more wholesalers to sell their items at a reduced price from that of the market.
A Malaysian stall selling hotdogs and Kebabs, Afghani store selling dates, Spanish Donut stall, Gujrati stall for ethnic Indian dresses for women, Iraqi store selling beautiful head scarves and Hijab or Burqa, junk jewelleries, handbags, hand woven warm clothes, other bulk food stalls and merchandise corners were the highlights of the market.
“We planned to organise this small market and it was quite a success, an approximate of 3500 people turned up at the venue, and it was jam packed most of the evening” says Mr Javed Dadabhai, the operations manager of Auckland Eid Day.
Auckland Eid Day is also organising an Eid Day Carnival at Trust Stadium in Henderson. The event will begin with Eid Prayers at 7:30am and will conclude at 5pm.