Community Kicks Off Ramadan With Lighting Ceremony

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NY — Atlantic Avenue was illuminated with lights ahead of Ramadan for the first year ever.

The lights, hung by the Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District, read "Happy Ramadan" and featured green crescent moons. The lights went up about a week ago on Atlantic Avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues and Court and Clinton Streets.

Local elected officials and community leaders ceremoniously turned the lights on at a gathering on Wednesday, the first day of Ramadan.

The district was initially inspired by a Ramadan light display in Bay Ridge, and hopes to expand the celebratory lighting with the help of local merchants and sponsors, according to a news release from the district and Yemeni American Merchants Association.

"The lights... are meant as a gesture of friendship toward the commercial corridor’s long-standing–as well as newly arrived–Muslim businesses," the organizations said in a news release.

This is the first year that Atlantic Avenue had a Ramadan light display, but the area regularly has holiday lights during the season between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

“What makes this borough beautiful are the people who call it home, and I’m so glad that our streets will light up in recognition of our Muslim communities as we welcome in the holy month of Ramadan. Thank you to the Atlantic Avenue BID and Yemeni Merchants Association for sharing in the celebration of Ramadan with our neighbors and leading the way toward a Brooklyn for all,” said Brooklyn Borough President Anthony Reynoso in a statement.