From Wikipedia :)

 

"Festival of Sacrifice" is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God. However, God provided a ram in place once Ibrahim demonstrated his willingness to follow God's commands.

 

Eid al-Adha is the latter of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes from the Quran. Like Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha begins with a short prayer followed by a sermon.

 

Eid al-Adha annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Dhul Hijja (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar. The festivities last for three days or more depending on the country. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. It happens to be approximately 70 days after the end of the month of Ramadan.

 

Men, women, and children are expected to dress in their finest clothing to perform Eid prayer (ṣalātu l-`Īdi) in any mosque. Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice their best domestic animals (camels, cows and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim's sacrifice. According to the Quran, the meat is divided into three shares, one share for the poor, one share for the relatives and neighbors and the last to keep to oneself.

 

My experience with Eid was very interesting.

 

First of all, the 3 days of Eid are public holiday. So that means that almost the whole week, everything was closed and it seemed like all the life has stopped for 1 week and everyone returned to their homes to celebrate with their families and relatives.

 

The way we celebrated Eid was at Hassan's house with his family.

 

Before we got there though, we went through a little bit of preparation as well. Before Eid, everyone who can afford it is shopping for new clothes, girls are buying bangles and getting mehendi done. All the streets were full of people running around, trying to arrange everyting before the Eid celebration.

 

 

We spent the whole monday evening at Hassan's house playing games and talking about Eid. The next morning, the guys left for prayers to the mosque. After they came back, the ritual of sacrifice started. Usually people sacrifice a cow, a goat and sometimes even a camel. These animals are special, because they have never been used for any other purpose and they are supposed to be treated very nicely. According to the tradition, you are expected to become friends with the animal before the actual sacrifice, so many people get the animals a week or even a month before the actual sacrifice and keep them in their garden.

 

After the sacrifice, the streets everywhere are covered with blood stains and it looks like a slaughter.

 

 

The rest of the day we spent eating nice food (not me actually, because my stomach was messed up again), playing games, talking to our friends, hanging out.

 

To sum it up, Eid as I percieved it, was a really nice family get-together, comparable to christmas. All the family meets, eats, visits friends and relatives and spends time in a relaxing atmosphere.