For senior Rodina and sophomore Ahmad Fayad, this winter will be a time for cathartic reflection.

The Quran says that Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael because Allah required it. At the last minute, Allah sent a ram for Ibrahim to sacrifice instead. For three days at the end of the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, which takes place this year from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, Muslims celebrate Eid-Al-Adha, a commemoration of Ibrahim’s submission to Allah’s request. Ancient rituals include sacrificing a goat or sheep and holding a feast. Though most Muslims do not make the Hajj in a given year, and many do not sacrifice livestock, they still have a feast on Eid-Al-Adha. At the end of this feast, it is traditional to give one third of the food away to friends and another third to the poor.

The Fayads regularly celebrate Eid-Al-Adha with their family. It is an occasion that is more of a family gathering than a religious ceremony. Although sometimes the Fayads will gather with other Muslim families in a restaurant on the Eid-Al-Adha, this year they will celebrate at home with their extended family, many of whom live in the Bay Area. They follow the tradition of charity. “We give away food to the needy every year to sort of include the less fortunate in the celebration as well,” Rodina Fayad said.

The holiday is also the New Year for Muslims, who use a lunar calendar, but it is only coincidence that it will include the Gregorian New Year this year, since the lunar calendar is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar.

The Fayads also participate in Ramadan, the ninth month on the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast and refrain from sinning, while also praying and asking for forgiveness. “I haven’t missed a day since I was 10,” Ahmad Fayad said. “I like it, and definitely have fun doing it.”

One aspect of practicing Islam that Rodina Fayad has adapted to her own life is Salat, or praying five times a day. She does not pray at school, choosing to wait until she arrives home, for reasons of convenience. “During the school day, when I’m frustrated, I would recite a couple of verses from the Quran,” she said.

Rodina Fayad has become more intrigued by Islam as she has grown older. “The older I get the more I want to learn about it, because I am living in America where it is different than if you live, say, in Egypt,” she said. “The amount that you are surrounded by Islam every day is different. Here it’s so multicultural.”

The Fayad family belongs to a Mosque in Santa Clara, although neither Rodina nor Ahmad Fayad go as often as their parents. However, Ahmad Fayad used to go to a youth group at the Mosque on Friday nights. Rodina Fayad learned Arabic at home, yet when she reads the Quran she usually does so from an English translation. “I read it translated because it’s easier,” she said. “I’m a fluent speaker and not necessarily writer or reader.”

Rodina Fayad is saddened when her peers don’t choose to learn about the religious aspect of her life. She sees Islam as much more lenient than others might think. “Everyone thinks it’s so strict and ridiculously conservative and even obnoxious,” she said. “I actually disagree because I think that it has a lot of good concepts, and a lot of people live by it.”