Stamp featuring Edmonton-designed Canadian prayer rug coming to a mailbox near you

1 month_ago 22

Edmonton·New

Edmonton Muslim younker acceptable retired to make a Canadian supplication rug. Now the representation is acceptable to question the globe 1 envelope astatine a time.

Canada Post releases stamp inspired by task that tells the communicative of Edmonton Muslims

Andrea Huncar · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 10:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Stamp with Indigenous, Muslim and Alberta motifs including a enactment of aureate wheat, bluish Cree triangles representing the rockies and North Saskatchewan stream and crescent moons paying homage to the lunar calendar which is important successful some Indigenous radical and Muslims

A project celebrating Edmonton's Muslim assemblage and deep-rooted connections to the land has stamped a spot successful Canadian history.

The Canadian Prayer Rug created 9 years agone successful Edmonton is present acceptable to question the country as the representation connected Canada Post's newest stamp released successful honour of Eid celebrations.

"The rug to maine is astir being astatine home, astir feeling you truly belong," Omar Yaqub, enforcement manager for IslamicFamily said successful an interrogation with Radio Active Monday. IslamicFamily is the non-profit hub that facilitated the Canadian Prayer Rug project.

"What we're trying to bash is evoke that consciousness of location and place, and the mode we bash that is done reconciliation — recognizing those archetypal stories done knowing our neighbours."

For much than 1,400 years, Muslims have prayed connected rugs reflecting section motifs, flora, architecture and tradition.

It was successful that tone successful 2016 that drove a radical of Edmonton Muslim younker to interview Indigenous elders and families of aboriginal settlers asking: What would a Canadian supplication rug look like?

Those interviews were past captured successful a collaboration betwixt Métis designer Kit Craven and weaver Noor Iqbal.

Radio Active6:04Edmonton task gets Canada Post's stamp of approval

In caller years, Canada Post has released a peculiar Eid stamp to commemorate Muslim celebrations successful Canada. The 2025 stamp features a plan representing the Canadian Prayer Rug, portion of a younker task organized by Edmonton's Islamic Family group. Omar Yaqub is the group's enforcement director.

Woven with locally sourced wool and dyes, the plan of the supplication rug aims to picture Alberta's divers landscape and some Indigenous and Muslim symbols.

Rising up from the rug's centre is simply a lodgepole conifer utilized to marque teepees, besides meant to beryllium reminiscent of the cedars of Lebanon, wherever galore aboriginal Muslim settlers came from.

Blue triangles successful Cree motif correspond the Rocky Mountains and North Saskatchewan River portion a enactment of aureate wheat symbolizes the abundance of the prairies.

The rug's 2 crescent moons wage homage to the lunar calendar which is important to some Indigenous people and Muslims who usage it to calculate the commencement of Ramadan.

Crescent moons tin besides beryllium recovered connected apical of the 2 minarets astatine Edmonton's Al Rashid Mosque.

A antheral and a pistillate clasp smoking sage

"[The rug] celebrates the deep, enduring transportation betwixt Indigenous and Muslim communities, which helped to unfastened the country's archetypal mosque successful Edmonton successful 1938," Canada Post wrote successful a quality merchandise on Monday.

"More than a enactment of art, the rug symbolizes unity and multiculturalism wrong Treaty 6 Territory, which includes Edmonton."

This is Canada Post's seventh stamp to commemorate the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha — multi-day celebrations that include communal prayers, feasts, household gatherings, gift-giving and acts of charity.

Canada Post besides releases yearly stamps marking Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas.