Special Report
Most of the Muslims in Europe have celebrated Eid al-Adha, the religious festival on Friday, 1st September.
The festival is being celebrated at end of Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, the Muslims’ holy city in Saudi Arabia. More than two million pilgrims went to the Arabia to the Hajj pilgrimage this year. The Eid al-Adha, the holy festival is also known as the ‘sacrifice feast’ or Greater Eid, begins on the 10th day of Zilhajj, a month in the Islamic lunar calendar.
Muslims in different European countries like Belgium, France, UK, Holland, Norway and Denmark celebrated Eid on 1st September as Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula also celebrate the festival on Friday while Muslims in India and Pakistan will mark it from tomorrow (September 2).
Celebrations of Eid al-Adha vary around the world. Muslims greet each other by saying ‘Eid Mubarak’ on during the festival which involves prayers and visits to friends and family.
The festival commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice to God and in some parts of the world Muslims sacrifice livestock such as cows, sheep or goat.
Due to restrictions of common slaughtering, most of the Muslims in Europe don’t scarify the animal and they send money for sacrifices to their parent’s land. Norway is also one of the northern European countries where Muslim people including Norwegian Pakistanis dispatch to their parents lands for sacrifices of the animals.
