For years, Muslim students at the University of Maryland, College Park, had celebrated Eid quietly. They prayed in small apartments, shared food in dorm rooms, or drove to D.C. to find a larger gathering. In 1977, the newly formed MSA decided to do something different: host an Eid celebration on campus.
It was a bold idea. They booked a lecture hall through Student Affairs, a space that usually held academic talks or club meetings. That morning, they transformed it with colorful fabrics draped over tables, trays of sweets brought from home kitchens, and rugs borrowed from students’ apartments.
When the call to prayer was made, the hall filled with students from every corner of the campus. Some wore traditional clothes, shalwar kameez, abayas, jalabiyas, while others came in jeans and jackets. For many, it was the first time they had seen such diversity united under one roof.
The khutbah was delivered in English, a conscious choice to include everyone. The speaker reminded them that Eid was not just a ritual but a declaration of joy, resilience, and community. When the prayer ended, the room erupted in embraces, handshakes, and the sound of “Eid Mubarak!” echoing against classroom walls.
Non-Muslim students peeked in, curious about the celebration. Some were invited to join and taste baklava or samosas. This turned into an unplanned moment of dawah It showed that Muslims on campus were not just foreign students hiding in libraries, they were a lively community with traditions of joy.
That first Eid at UMCP set a precedent. Each year afterward, the celebrations grew, bigger spaces, larger crowds, and more visibility. What began as a handful of students in a lecture hall would, decades later, become campus-wide Eid banquets and prayers attended by hundreds.
For the students of 1977, the memory was simpler. They had turned a college classroom into a house of worship, a dining hall into a place of laughter, and a foreign land into a home where they could celebrate Eid openly.
In that moment, Eid on campus was not just about marking the end of Ramadan, it was about declaring that Maryland’s Muslims belonged here and that their joy could not be hidden.