Muharram

Muharram, the Islamic New Year, will be observed today (Jan. 20, 2007) by many Muslims.

If anyone doubts the complexity of the Muslim community, an online glance at the topic will confirm it. Sunnis and Shiites disagree on how to observe the holiday or even whether to observe it.

But meanwhile, companies like Crayola want to participate. Crayola offers activities for kids for the Islamic New Year.

For those of us who remember Crayola colors such as Raw Umber (what does that mean anyway?) and Flesh (changed to “peach” in 1962), the inclusive Crayola stance is very interesting.

In all fairness, Crayola did offer a pack of crayons a while back called “My World” that included skin, eye and hair colors for many ethnicities. Now there is a "multicultural" pack.

Anyway, it behooves everybody who favors cultural understanding to give a look at web sites about the Islamic New Year.

--Bernice Paglia