Islam has only two major festivals, Eid’l Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast) celebrated at the end of Ramadan, and Eid’l Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), observed during the Hajj, the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

This was explained to the Daily Tribune by Edd K. Usman, a Muslim, and a practicing journalist for many years.

Edd now has his online news platform, SDN — SciTech & Digital News, which won two Media Awards from the Philippine Heart Association-Philippine College of Cardiology in 2022 and 2023.

As a journalist, he traveled around the world 44 times for international coverage and has a Journalism Fellowship with East-West Center in the United States in June 2008.

Edd said “Feast of the Sacrifice” commemorates and honors the willingness of the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim in Islam) to sacrifice his first-born son, which among Muslims is Ishmael, to obey Allah’s (God in Arabic) command.

The Eids are marked annually with early morning mass prayers in mosques, stadiums, or open fields. It is not mandatory to pray the Eid, but since it comes once a year, mosques are filled to the brim, that’s why many Eid prayers are held in other large indoor spaces, even in open fields.

With the commemoration and celebration, Edd said families prepare food, some food native to a particular Moro community, like Maguindanao, Maranaw, Tausug, Yakan, Sama, etc.

Also, friends and relatives visit neighbors to partake of food, children are known to go knocking on doors to ask for money as “sadaqah” (voluntary charity).

Some families, especially with newborn sons or daughters, or those who can afford it, slaughter a goat, a cow, or sheep, in honor of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son Ishmael (but was stopped by Allah in the last minute, his son replaced with a lamb). Just a trial of his fear and obedience to God.

The slaughtered animal is divided into three equal parts, 2/3 given to the poor or needy, 1/3 remaining to the family who made the slaughter.

Eids are celebrated for at least four days, some even a week in Arab and Muslim countries.

Eid’l Adha falls on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and last month of Islam’s Hijrah calendar, which this year falls on 16 June. Since Hijrah is based on the cycle of the moon (lunar-based), the two Eids occur slightly differently from every year in the Gregorian calendar. Hijrah is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year.

Edd K. Usman said Eid’l Adha is the culmination of the 5-6 days Mecca pilgrimage, and it is celebrated while Muslim pilgrims are in Mina, near Mecca, performing the hajj ritual called “Stoning of the Devil,” which symbolizes one’s rejection of evil.