By Hasan Dudar, Detroit Free Press
For Samar Baydoun Bazzi, the Ramadan Tree grew out of a desire to mark the Islamic holy month with festive cheer.
Growing up as a Muslim in the U.S., Baydoun Bazzi, 29, of Dearborn said she noticed a lack of decorations during the month-long holiday, which Muslims observe by fasting from sunrise to sundown to commemorate the revelation of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad.
“Obviously, Ramadan’s important,” Baydoun Bazzi said. “You gotta pray and fast, and you want to become closer to your creator. But I never as a kid felt like there was any decorations or like a celebration. I wanted something exciting.”
When she became a mother, she decided to take matters into her own hands and create the kind of Ramadan experience she wished for as a child.
She began by decorating her west Dearborn home with Islamic-themed art, like acrylic paintings of Arabic calligraphy and a cardboard model of a mosque.
In her basement, Baydoun Bazzi, a mother of three, takes artificial trees and twists and bends them into the shape of a crescent moon, a universal symbol of Islam, whose religious calendar is based on the lunar cycle. Ramadan, which marks the ninth month of the Islamic year, begins May 16 and ends June 14, according to the Islamic Society of North America.
The first crescent tree took her 20 minutes to make and it “died,” Baydoun Bazzi said. Now the trees take her anywhere from two to five hours to shape because she wants to ensure they’re stable and won’t fall apart.
They go quick.
Since January, she has sold about 40 trees, which cost $150, come in two colors, forest green or white, and come with lights and an ornamental star of either five or eight points.
Baydoun Bazzi currently has about 20 people on the wait list and said she gets more orders every day as Ramadan approaches. She hopes to get the trees manufactured in the future, which she says would be “a lot quicker.”
The trees can be shipped at a cost, said Baydoun Bazzi, who has sold to customers in Chicago, Virginia, New York and Minnesota.
She has gained customers by word of mouth. It started with family, Baydoun Bazzi said. Then with friends of family and their friends’ friends. People saw the tree and began bringing her their own trees to have her reshape them. Baydoun Bazzi also operates private Facebook and Instagram accounts for the tree.
Salha, who grew up Christian and converted to Islam, said that she bought the tree last Ramadan. It’s still in her basement and she plans to decorate it with ornaments and to place gifts under the tree for Eid al-Fitr, the feast day that follows the final day of fasting.
Baydoun Bazzi said she doesn’t put presents under her tree, and that she takes her kids to the store and has them pick their presents instead.
“I don’t want it too similar to Christmas, just because I make it out of a tree,” she said. “You know, I want it to be our own. … I don’t want it to be too familiar to Christmas.”
The similarity to Christmas has brought about some criticism, Baydoun Bazzi said, with some people worrying she’s trying to fold Christmas into Ramadan or that she might confuse children. There are also concerns surrounding the Christmas tree’s possible pagan origins, Baydoun Bazzi said.
“That’s not my intention,” she said, adding: “Honestly, all of us that make them just want to make our children happy. That’s my main reason.”
Eman Saleh, 31, of Dearborn, who bought a Ramadan Tree for her 7-year-old daughter, Amira, said she enjoys seeing such innovations in the Muslim-American community and young children having something to relate to.
“So I’m really happy to see that they’re making efforts to prioritize making it enjoyable for the youth because it’s tougher, it’s tougher nowadays to be, you know, a Muslim in this day and age,” Saleh said. “And so I think if we’re able to start when they’re young and to make them feel strong and to make them feel connected to their identity, then we’re on to a good start.”
