Eid-Ul-Adha, The Festival of Sacrifice
Eid-Ul-Adha is a three-day Muslim holiday and celebration. It begins on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, and falls at the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Eid-Ul-Adha celebrations start with attendance at the Eid Prayer and sermon in the morning. People wear their nicest clothes, visit each other’s homes, beginning with their parents, and share feasts and present gifts and sweets to children. It is considered obligatory to donate money to charities at this time, enabling poor people to buy new clothes and food so that they, too, can celebrate the holiday.
Known as the ‘Feast of Sacrifice,’ The holiday commemorates the Prophet Abraham’s unselfishness in sacrificing his son, Ishmael. God had asked him to do this in a dream and Abraham, though tempted by the devil to refuse, agreed to kill his boy. In return, God spared the boy’s life, substituting a sheep for Abraham to slaughter instead. To celebrate Abraham’s unselfishness, people sacrifice a lamb, goat, cow or other animal, and share the meat with their family, friends and, most importantly, with the poor.
Many Muslims also exchange greeting cards on this holiday, wishing each other a Blessed Eid-Ul-Adha!
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Good post & thanks for sharing this. To just let you know that Eid-ul-adha is only for 3days & Abraham’s son name is Ismael. Best wishes for Eid to you & also wishes for a brand new year 2007.
Hi Jugnoo — thank you so much for your information. I have corrected the post to show that it is a 3 day holiday. Do you know if there are different ways of celebrating the different days? I also read that in Pakistan, the holiday begins on January 1 — is this because of different ways of reading the Islamic calendar?
Regarding Abraham’s son, Ishmael seems to be the common spelling in English. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael), he is known as Ismail in Arabic, so it makes sense that the name is commonly pronounced as Ismael by Muslim English speakers. He is quite an important prophet in the Qu’ran: he is the one who convinced his father to follow God’s command, and Muhammad is one of his descendants.
Thank you for encouraging me to research this and learn more about this!
Best wishes for Eid and a very happy 2007!
Thanks & many many best wishes to you too. There is not any difference for celebrating 3days of Eid, but on first day is ofcourse is most awaited day so people get more excited but other two days are the same.