The women and girls held their hands high as they squeezed through the crush of people at Karmel Mall, daring not smear their freshly applied henna after waiting hours in line for the elaborate designs.
"Hands up! Hands up!" they shouted.
With Muslims preparing to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday on Tuesday after the holy month of Ramadan, this is one of the busiest times of year at the Somali shopping center in south Minneapolis. People flocked here in recent days to buy presents for the children, try on dresses known as abayas, style their hair and order pastries.
"It's like you guys when you get ready for Christmas," said Iman Jama, owner of a jewelry shop where she had an ideal vantage point to watch the surge of Eid shoppers. "We can't wait for Eid."
Children squealed, girls fanned one another's hands to dry the henna dye faster, merchants rolled their rugs, men crowded into barbershops and horns blared outside amid madcap traffic. As he helped direct wayward cars in the parking lot, where a sign flashed the holiday greeting "Ramadan kareem," Karmel Mall owner Basim Sabri said he had increased the number of security guards from four to 12 and added cleaning staff to accommodate between 5,000 and 8,000 patrons a day.
Many Muslims took off from work and school, and merchants worked long hours to meet the demand at the mall. Eid begins Tuesday morning, when worshipers will pray and gather with family for meals after a month of daytime fasting.
"It's the best time of the year … we don't eat, sleep, nothing," Sahra Ali said of running her clothing business.
She started House of Arawelo in the mall to sell modest, stylish Islamic wear for teens and young women. Ali, 30, noted that many of the clothing stores in the shopping center are run by older women, and those her age want to wear different fashions imported from Dubai and China.
