Oriental garlands: LED string lights, Ramadan and Eid Mubarak banners, crescent moons and lanterns. Dress your home for Ramadan and Eid day.
An oriental garland is a hanging decoration that takes up the patterns and colours of Muslim festivals. You will find the crescent moon, the star, the fanous lantern and the calligraphy “Ramadan Mubarak” or “Eid Mubarak”.
Two main families sit side by side. String lights carry LED bulbs, often shaped like a moon or a lantern, along a flexible wire. Paper or felt garlands line up pennants, letters or cut-out shapes, with no electricity.
The colours tell the story of the festival. Golden tones and white evoke the light of the nights of Ramadan; green is the traditional colour of Islam; midnight blue recalls the sky under which people watch for the crescent moon. Banners often mix the three.
Banners differ from garlands in their message. A banner carries a whole phrase, in cardboard or embroidered letters, and is read from one end of the wall to the other. A garland, on the other hand, repeats a pattern: it dresses a length of wall without saying anything, and so goes with everything.
These decorations come out at two moments of the year. During the month of Ramadan, which lasts 29 or 30 days, they accompany the evening meals. On the day of Eid, they dress the house that welcomes the family.
First choose the room where everything happens. In most homes, it is the dining room, where the fast is broken every evening. That is where decoration is most useful, and that is where to start.
Hang the banner above the table or on the wall facing the entrance, about 2 metres from the floor. It should be readable at a glance, without getting in the way. An illuminated oriental garland is then laid along a shelf, a curtain or a door frame.
Think of the children, for whom the wait is long. A hanging calendar to count off each day, a small light that comes on at sunset, and the festival becomes a visible landmark. Many families add a garland each week, to mark the progress of the month.
Keep the look simple. Two colours are enough for the whole room, for example golden and white, or green and golden. Beyond that, the table disappears under the decoration and the dishes no longer stand out. A plain tablecloth serves as a backdrop and lets the garland play its part.
Fix everything without damaging the walls. Adhesive hooks or masking tape are enough for a light garland. Keep electric cables along the skirting boards or frames, away from curtains and candles, and check that no child can pull on them from a chair.
Measure before you buy. A garland of 3 metres dresses a wall or a window; you need 5 to 10 metres to go round a room or run along a staircase. Always add a metre of margin for the curves.
Next look at the power supply. A battery model can be placed anywhere, even in the middle of a wall, but needs spare batteries for the whole month. A USB or mains-powered garland never stops, as long as you have a socket within reach. A built-in timer, often set to 6 hours on and 18 hours off, saves you from thinking about it every evening.
Choose the shade of the light. A warm white gives a soft atmosphere, close to candlelight, and shows off the golden tones. A cool white looks bluish and suits a festive table badly. Multicoloured models appeal mostly to children’s rooms.
Finally, check the intended use. An indoor garland cannot withstand rain or frost; for a balcony or a garden, you need a model marked for outdoor use. Then store it wound around a flat piece of card: tangled wires break more often than bulbs.
These garlands go with our whole Islamic religious festivals range, from Ramadan to Eid. For the rest of the house, our oriental decor items extend the same patterns all year round. And to understand the traditions surrounding these festivals, open our oriental culture page.
