KARACHI: As the Muslims broke their fasts, there were also Christians who broke their Lent fasts at the scrumptious Iftar and dinner programme organised by St Patrick’s High School in their main courtyard here on Saturday.

The theme of the day, which also coincided with the eve of St Patrick’s Day, or the death anniversary of St Patrick, was dark green. Green is also seen as a sacred colour in Islam.

But ahead of Maghrib or sunset, there were also several engaging presentations by the school students in the form of the tableaux performances and skits to help pass the time before iftar.

There was a tableau about inter-faith harmony, a skit about the consequences of greed, another about the importance of parental guidance. Closer to iftar there was also the singing of hymns followed by hamd and naat recitations.

The Additional Director of the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions, Rafia Javed Mallah, the chief guest on the occasion, said that she was touched to find so much inter-faith harmony at work during the iftar.

Later, in her vote of thanks, Vice Principal of the school Mrs Christine Martins wished everyone well while noticing that only a few days of Lent remained while there Ramazan was still in its early days.

“There are many days of Ramazan still remaining so I wish my Muslim friends a blessed Ramazan and my Christian friends a peaceful lent,” she said.

St Patrick High School’s Principal Reverend Father Mario Rodrigues said that it has now become a tradition for St Patrick’s to organise an inter-faith iftar during Ramazan and Lent when both Muslims and Christians fast.

“All our school staff and teachers hail from various faiths including Islam, Christianity and Hinduism. All of them prepared our Iftar programme together with the students, who also follow various faiths. You cannot say that we held a programme for just Christians or just Muslims. It was a very balanced programme,” he pointed out.

“Our school may be a missionary school but it is a school for students of all faiths. The same is the case with our country, Pakistan, where people of all faiths are free to practice their religious obligations according to their wish,” he said.

Finally, prayers were said for the country.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2024