Eid al-Fitr, the feast that breaks the month-long fast of Ramadan began as the crescent moon became visible on Thursday night.

On Friday morning, 200 observers representing 15 different countries gathered at Charles Sturt University.

“It’s always quite a celebration, wherever you celebrate it, but here in Wagga it’s very unique. Here we have so many different nationalities, so many different people all together.” said Dr Ata-ur Rehman of the Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga (MARWA).

Dr Rehman and his wife Alvina moved from Pakistan to Wagga 19 years ago. 

“There are Somalis, Pakistanis, Malays, there’s a lot of different people here, but we’re all Australian and we’re all celebrating,” said Ms Rehman.

“It is different to how we’d be celebrating in Pakistan, because there it would be a [national] holiday, and the whole country would be celebrating together.

The feast takes many hours to prepare, and for some of the observers like Beyola Tombek, that means giving up sleep to get everything ready.

“It is a long day too, I was up most of the night cooking,” Ms Tombek said.

“I think I went to bed at four, then woke up at five. It’s worth it though.”

This is the first time Ms Tombek has observed Ramadan since she was a child living in Egypt. She was invited to take part in this year’s Eid al-Fitre by Nanah Kebe, her friend from Sierra Leone.

“The prayer, the fasting it’s challenging, but you do get used to it,” Ms Tombek said.

For Saba Nabi’s eight-year-old daughter Ariba Omar, the most challenging part of the day was waking up so early on a school day. They moved to Australia from India seven years ago.

“In India, [Eid celebrations] are definitely more crowded, and it goes on all day. Here, it has to be all done by nine o’clock so that we can go to work or school,” Ms Nabi said.

“It does end up being a long day, especially for my daughter, she wanted to stay home this morning, but I told her ‘think of the sweets!’”