Since Ramadan began a few weeks ago, Samah Nasser has been getting Muslim children to associate their holiest month of the year with having fun, not just fasting.

At a mosque in Manoa on Saturdays, about 20 kids between 3 and 12 years old take part in listening to stories related to Islamic traditions, making crafts, singing songs and making simple appetizers for the congregational evening meal, Nasser said.

The program is run by the Muslim Association of Hawaii.

Ramadan — the annual 30-day period of fasting, prayer and self-discipline for Muslims worldwide — began July 10 in Hawaii, according to the association’s Facebook page. The culmination of this spiritual journey is the Eid al-Fitr celebration; visit www.facebook.com/pages/Muslim-Association-of-Hawaii for when the event takes place next week at Ala Moana Beach Park’s McCoy Pavilion.

Nasser, who is half Egyp­tian, doesn’t have any children yet, but she coordinates the activities because “children should love their holidays, their holy month.

I want them to do activities that make them happy and be excited, so they can have good memories about Ramadan, instead of it being a month when you have to fast every day and be hungry all the time.”

Children are not required to fast, but highly encouraged by parents to do so, starting with a half a day, or maybe every other day, she said. The period of fasting for adults 18 and over normally lasts from sunrise to sundown, except for pregnant women and people with health problems.

“I started fasting at 7 and we wanted to. We were not forced, we were encouraged. My older siblings were praised for fasting. My mom would tell my aunties that my sister was fasting, and everyone would say, ‘Praise to God.’ And there was a special drink to break the fast, and I always wanted that drink,” Nasser recalled, describing it as a thick apricot nectar with dried dates and raisins at the bottom that could be eaten with a spoon, called “amar al-Deen.”

“Fasting was something fine; it was something you felt proud of. Ramadan for every culture has special dishes to make, so it’s always fun for people, too,” she added.

One of the craft projects at the mosque was making 100 paper flower lei for young patients at Shriners Hospital for Children and having a few of the kids help deliver the lei later in the week.

During Ramadan there is emphasis on people being more giving and charitable than they usually are, and “I wanted to mix in the spirit of aloha with ‘get well’ flower leis and write something inspirational like ‘love,’ ‘smile’ or ‘get well’ on each flower,” Nasser said.