Bismillah hir rahmanir raheem

Assalamualaikum my wonderful brothers and sisters! How are you all? Hope you're doing well inshallah! Allhamduillah my week went great! How about urs?

I have done a chapter on celebrations before but this time i want to go in-depth.

There are two Eids celebrated in Islam and both follow major acts of worship.  The first is Eid al-Fitr which follows Ramadan and the second is Eid al-Adha which follows the Hajj.  In order to understand the importance of each holiday an understanding of the act of worship that precedes it is also necessary so I will explain the importance of the worship and then the holiday that follows.

Ramadan is an entire month during which Muslims focus on purifying themselves, getting closer to God, and growing in their knowledge/faith.  During Ramadan Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.  This fasting includes refraining from food, drink, sexual intercourse, bad language, and bad behavior.  Muslims generally read an entire chapter of the Qur'an each day (it has 30 chapters) so they read the entire book in one month.  It is often compared to being a mini boot-camp in which we arm ourselves with knowledge by reading the Qur'an and fit ourselves physically fit but modifying our diet, increasing our good deeds, and committing more and greater acts of worship.  By fasting we become more sympathetic to those less fortunate than ourselves because we feel what it is like to go without food or drink, we feel what it's like to be without.  In turn this should cause us to be more generous and seek to alleviate hunger amongst the poor.  It also helps to bring us together with family, friends, and neighbors as we break our fasts together.  It brings us closer as a community and to God by offering more worship such as taraweyah prayers (extra prayer services offered nightly in Ramadan).

After such an extensive training session a celebration is only logical.  This is where Eid al-Fitr (the Festival/Holiday of Breaking Fast) comes in.  It is a celebration which lasts 3 days and celebrates the successful completion of Ramadan and the newly renewed spiritual cleansing and connection.  This particular Eid is also associated with sweets and some call it the Sugar Festival or Sweet Festival.  Sweets of various kinds are a common feature of this Eid.  There are many different ways in which people celebrate the Eid but in general they all go in the morning to pray the special Eid prayer. On the way there and while waiting for the prayer session to start it is common to recite the Eid Takbir like this:

Then after praying people generally have a feast of sorts with their families and or friends.  It is a typical time to travel to family's homes and visit.  Typical foods vary by country/region.  In the Middle East it is common to buy new clothes for the Eid and children often recieve Eidia (pronounced pretty much like idea) which is money.  Eidia is recieved from family and friends but generally comes from an adult to child.  Gifts between adults are rare and actual gifts from child to adult are almost non-existant.  Kids use the money to buy toys and sweets.  Practices vary around the world quite a bit.  For example in China it's common for families to go visit the graves of their ancestors (a practice which seems to have developed out of the strong Chinese cultural reverence of Ancestors).  In the US, Canada, Australia, UK it is often more common to give children gifts as opposed to money (to compare with strong Christian gifting practices such as Christmas common in those areas) it is also increasingly common to make Eid goody bags with little trinkets, party favors, stickers, temporary tattoo's, and candy to hand out to children after the Eid prayer and gifts between adults or from child to adult are more common.  So exact practices and traditions have a great deal of variation around the world often influenced by dominant local cultural practices.  It is also common to go to amusement parks/carnivals/circuses in many places although in the West this is more common than in many other countries probably because immigrants and subsequent generations do not have very large extended families to visit so they spend more time going out as smaller familial groups and because of the often minority status of their holidays and the abundance of Christian holiday commercialization they often feel the need to make Eid's "extra special" to keep kids interested.

The second major act of worship to occur is the Hajj.  The Hajj is one of the most important acts of worship that a Muslim will ever experience.  It is a once in a lifetime experience for most Muslims one that requires extensive planning, training, and commitment.  Both the Hajj and the following Eid al-Adha are based around the father of Abrahamic religions Abraham (or as we call him Ibrahim) and his family.  Hajj is a requirement on all Muslims who can perform it at least once in their lifetime.  Every part of the experience is based in a remembrance of Ibrahim and his family and their faith in God.  The Kaba'a itself is a holy site.  The black stone which is built into part of the wall is believed to have been a dazzling white (blackened over the centuries by the sins of mankind) and was sent down to earth by God to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar for worship.  After the flood (Nuh or Noah's flood) it was said to be lost and forgotten.  Later the angel Gabriel (Jibreel to us) showed Abraham (Ibrahim) the location of the stone.  He and his son Ishmael (Ismail) then built the Kaba'a on the site which Adam had originally errected an altar.  After completing it God told Ibrahim that he should circumbulate the Kaba'a (see Qur'an, Al-Hajj, 22:26-27: http://quran.com/22/26-27).

In performing this we re-enact the worship offered by Ibrahim and Ismail, we re-affirm the the connection with Adam and continue the worship into the present affirming the oneness and eternal presence of Allah.  After Tawaf we must then run or walk seven times between the two mountains of Safa and Marwa (their called mountains but they really are barely more than large hills).  This is another act of remembrance when we are re-enacting the actions of Hagar (Hajar) as she frantically searched for water to give to her son Ishmael (Ismail) after Abraham (Ibrahim) leaves her in the wilderness.  She walked between them seven times before an angel reveled to her the Zamzam well by striking its heel on the ground.  As part of our worship we also drink the Zamzam water.  The next day we must travel to the plain of Arafat where we must spend the afternoon in contemplation or prayer.  It is a holy site for many reasons.  It is said that when Adam and Eve were sent down to earth they were separated and finally reunited at Arafat and it is here where Allah forgave their transgressions.  This alone makes it an ideal site for mankind to ask for forgiveness for our own transgressions and provides us with another chance to remember our connection with Adam and Eve and the compassion of God.  It is also the site of Muhammad's last sermon which gives us a change for remembrance from the first messenger to the last.  Then the pilgrims travel to Muzdhalifa which is another act of re-enacting what Muhammad did.  During his final Hajj he stayed here and prayed the last two prayers together.  He spent the night and told followers they could spend the night anywhere within Muzdhalifa.  When we stay here we also gather 70 pebbles which will be used later.  Then we move on and perform Ramy al-Jamarat.  When God asked Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ismail the Shaitan (devil/Satan) tried to distract him and dissuade him from following Allah's command.  He stopped him 3 times to try to dissuade him.  In each of these spots there is a pillar (more recently replaced by long walls to accommodate large crowds during hajj) which represents the devil.  The angel Gibril told Ibrahim to pelt Shaitan with pebbles/stones which he did at each of these three spots.  We too throw stones at devil in defiance of him and in steadfastness to Allah.  We throw them at the pillars of course which represent Shaitan.  Then finally we perform Tawaf one more time as a farewell.  As you can see this all evolves around remembrance of Abraham (Ibrahim) and his family and even with Adam and Eve and Muhammad.  As such it should be no surprise that the Eid that follows is also related to similar remembrance.

Eid al-Adha (the Festival/Holiday/Feast of Sacrifice or sometimes called the greater or big Eid) is done in remembrance of Abraham's (Ibrahim's) willingness to sacrifice his son out of faith in Allah and Allah's mercy on us all.  As Ismail was replaced with a sheep, lamb is the traditional thing to eat on Eid al-Adha.  It's a time when we celebrate Allah's mercy.  As successful completion of Hajj wipes our slates clean of all sins we all ask that Allah accept our Hajj (if we made it or grants us the opportunity and means to make it in the future) and the Hajj of all those who made it.  We celebrate especially anyone who has done it's completion of Hajj as well as it is one of the most important events of a Muslims life.  Other than the food usually being more focused on the Lamb and far less sweets much of the practices and traditions are the same for both Eids.  Muslims will again gather in the morning to recite Takbir and pray the Eid prayer.  Then they will go visit family and friends and eat feasts of lamb and other foods.  They will give Eidia (eid money) or gifts to children, wear new clothes and go out to celebrate at amusement parks and carnivals.  This Eid last 4 days as opposed to 3 though (which is why it's called the Big Eid).

Source: quora.com

Allah Hafiz❤