39 Fun Facts About Eid Al-Adha

Singapore's Hari Raya Haji fell twice in 2006; what lets one Gregorian year hold two?

Lunar years run 11 days short of solar ones, so Islamic dates creep earlier every year and a feast that falls in early January can come round again before December ends.

Which Caribbean nation gives Eid al-Fitr a public holiday but not Eid al-Adha?

Trinidad and Tobago has kept Eid al-Fitr as a national holiday since 1967, a day for serving sawine, a sweet milky vermicelli, while Eid al-Adha is not an official holiday there.

Which West African country, over 90% Muslim, calls Eid al-Adha Tabaski yet lines its capital with Christmas trees?

Senegal is about 95% Muslim, yet Dakar's squares glow with Christmas lights each December, and one street seller of plastic trees there says his buyers are mostly Muslims.

Turkey's Feast of Sacrifice holiday runs four full days; what extra time off precedes them?

A half-day the afternoon before, the arife, is written into Turkish law alongside the four full days, so offices empty at lunchtime on the eve of the feast.

Which Indian Ocean nation marks Eid al-Adha as Bodu Eid, a public holiday of several days?

The Maldives calls it Bodu Eid, the Big Eid, and islanders mark it with Bodu Mas, a mock hunt in which fishermen struggle to land a giant fish woven from coconut palm leaves.

Which alternative Arabic name for Eid al-Adha means 'Greater Eid'?

Eid al-Kabir, the Greater Eid, is generally considered the holier of the two feasts, coming as the pilgrimage to Mecca ends, which leaves Eid al-Fitr the name al-Eid al-Saghir, the Lesser Eid.

Which country, sighting its own crescent moon, began Eid al-Adha 2025 a day after Saudi Arabia, on 7 June?

Pakistan's moon-sighting committee met on 27 May 2025 and heard no report of a crescent from anywhere in the country, so its feast fell on 7 June; Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia kept it on the 6th.

By custom, Eid al-Adha meat is split three ways: the family, relatives and friends, and which other group?

The poor get the third share, and the butcher gets none of it as wages: Ali said Muhammad told him to hand out the meat and hides of the offerings in charity.

As Eid al-Adha begins, worshippers at Mina near Mecca throw pebbles at a wall marking where Abraham drove off whom?

Satan is said to have tried three times to talk Abraham and his family out of the sacrifice, so three walls at Mina are pelted with stones over the days of the feast.

Bakri Eid, a common Bangladeshi name for Eid al-Adha, literally means the Eid of which animal?

The goat is bakri in Bengali, Hindi and Urdu, though Platts's classic Urdu dictionary files the feast under baqar, the Arabic for ox or cow, as Baqar-Eid; Bangladeshis also say Korbanir Eid.

In Pakistan, which decoration do women traditionally apply to their hands for Eid al-Adha?

Henna goes on the night before the feast, and the morning brings Eidi, the money and gifts that elders hand to Pakistani children once the prayer is over.

Between which two points of the day must the Eid al-Adha prayer fall, which keeps it a morning congregation?

Sunrise and midday bound the window, which opens once the sun stands a spear's height above the horizon; Muhammad is reported to have prayed Eid al-Adha at one spear and Eid al-Fitr at two.

The five daily prayers and Friday worship all begin with which element that the Eid prayer does without?

The call to prayer is dropped: Jabir and Ibn Abbas both reported no adhan at either Eid, Jabir told Ata there was no iqamah or call of any kind, and Muhammad simply stood up and began.

Which part of Eid worship follows the prayer, reversing the order mosques keep every Friday?

The sermon follows the Eid prayer, and when the governor Marwan mounted the pulpit first because crowds would not stay to listen, the companion Abu Sa'id tugged at his robe in protest.

Which phrase does the Eid prayer add seven extra times in its first rak'ah and five in its second?

Allahu akbar, the takbir, comes seven extra times before the recital in the first rak'ah and five in the second in most schools, while one school adds just three in each.

Why is the Eid al-Adha prayer traditionally held earlier than the Eid al-Fitr prayer?

To leave time for the offering, which follows the prayer, Eid al-Adha is prayed early, whereas Eid al-Fitr is delayed so that Zakat al-Fitr can be handed out beforehand.

Eid al-Fitr begins with breakfast before setting out; when does the sunnah say to first eat on Eid al-Adha?

Only after the prayer, traditionally from the meat of one's own offering, does the first meal come on Eid al-Adha, whereas on Eid al-Fitr the sunnah is to eat, classically dates, before setting out.

Which sunnah of the Eid morning concerns the way home from the prayer ground?

Taking a different route home was Muhammad's habit, reported by Jabir and Abu Hurairah, yet one companion recalled going and returning through the same valley, so jurists call it preferred, not required.

Fasting on the Day of Arafah, the eve of Eid al-Adha, is said to expiate the sins of how many years?

Two years — the one past and the one to come — is what Muhammad said he hoped the Arafah fast would atone for when a man asked how he fasted; for Ashura he named a single year.

For which group is fasting on the Day of Arafah discouraged rather than recommended?

Hajj pilgrims are spared the fast because the standing at Arafat from noon to sunset is demanding enough, and Muhammad did not fast while he stood there in supplication.

Which Shia holiday falls on 18 Dhu al-Hijjah, eight days after Eid al-Adha?

Eid al-Ghadir marks Muhammad's address at the pool of Ghadir Khumm on the way home from his final pilgrimage, which Shia Muslims read as naming Ali his successor.

The Arabic word for the Eid al-Adha offering, a cousin of the Hebrew korban, comes from a root meaning what?

Closeness is the sense of the root q-r-b, attested as far back as Akkadian: the offering is what brings the giver near to God, and the same root gives Greek villagers their kourbania.

In the account Ibn Kathir relays of the first offering, what did Abel give while his brother Cain gave crops?

A sheep was Abel's offering in the account Ibn Kathir relays, and it was accepted where Cain's produce was not, the slight that drove Cain to kill his brother.

Which term do Islamic jurists use for the Eid al-Adha offering itself?

Udhiyah shares its Arabic root with the Adha of Eid al-Adha, a collective word for sacrificial animals, so the feast is literally named for these offerings.

From the new moon of Dhu al-Hijjah until the Eid offering is made, what is someone planning a sacrifice told to avoid?

Cutting hair or nails waits until the animal is offered, though jurists differ on how firmly: some call it forbidden, most only disliked, and a slip costs nothing beyond asking forgiveness.

Which school of Islamic law alone counts the Eid al-Adha offering as wajib for every financially able resident?

Hanafi jurists rank it wajib, while the majority call it a confirmed sunnah, citing reports that Abu Bakr and Umar sometimes skipped the offering so that no one would think it a duty.

As Jabir recalled from the year of Hudaybiyyah, a camel or cow offered at Eid may be shared by how many people?

Seven is the share limit set by Muhammad's own practice, when the companions offered a camel for seven and a cow for seven, while a smaller animal counts for a single household.

A hadith on the three Tashriq days that follow Eid al-Adha calls them days of what?

Eating and drinking — and remembering God, the chapter heading adds — fill the three days after the feast, when offerings continue and fasting is prohibited.

Which Minangkabau beef dish, slow-cooked in coconut milk, is served across the Malay world at Hari Raya, both Eids?

Rendang topped a 2011 CNN readers' poll of the world's most delicious foods, and its hours of slow cooking began as a way to keep meat for weeks without refrigeration.

In Surah As-Saffat, how does Abraham learn he must offer up his son?

In a dream — 'I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice you' — and early commentators explained why he acted on it: the dreams of prophets count as revelation.

The Quran says only that God ransomed Abraham's son with 'a great sacrifice'; which animal does tradition name?

A ram is tradition's answer: Ibn Abbas spoke of one that had grazed in Paradise for forty years, yet the verse itself names no animal at all.

Beyond the son's identity, how does the Quran's account of Abraham's offering differ from Genesis?

The son willingly agreed, answering 'do as you are commanded', and the Quran mentions no altar or bonds, so the story tests two believers' faith rather than one.

Most Muslims hold that Abraham was told to offer Ishmael; which son did the early historian al-Tabari argue for instead?

Isaac was al-Tabari's reading, shared with Ibn Qutaybah, of a verse on God perfecting his mercy on Abraham and Isaac; the Quran never names the son, and most Muslims hold it was Ishmael.

Which honorific does Islamic tradition give the son whom Abraham was told to offer?

Dhabih Allah means 'the one sacrificed to God', a title he keeps though the knife never cut, just as Abraham is Khalil Allah, God's friend, and Moses Kalim Allah, the one God addressed.

Surah As-Saffat, home to the Quran's fullest telling of Abraham's offering, takes its name from angels doing what?

Ranging in ranks is how the angels describe themselves later in the sura, 'we are ranged in ranks', and Muhammad held them up as a model, asking worshippers why they did not form rows as the angels do before their Lord.

Arab lexicographers trace the word Eid to a root for what a feast day does yearly; what does it mean?

To return is the classical derivation, a feast being a day that comes round again, though some philologists argue Arabic simply borrowed the word from Syriac, where it already meant a feast day.

Which reply, like the greeting a survival of Ottoman Turkish, answers Bosnia's Eid wish for a blessed Bajram?

Allah razi olsun means 'may God be pleased with you', olsun being Turkish for 'let it be', and Bosnian news sites spell out what both phrases mean afresh every Bajram.

Urdu speakers traditionally answer the standard Arabic Eid greeting with which reply of their own?

Khair Mubarak swaps the word Eid for khair, 'goodness', and across the subcontinent the exchange is sealed with three shoulder-to-shoulder hugs once the Eid prayer is over.

Pashto speakers say 'akhtar de mubarak sha' at Eid; what does the word akhtar mean?

Festival is the Pashto sense, so Eid al-Adha is Loy Akhtar, the big festival, though in Persian and Urdu the same word, familiar as the name Akhtar, means a star.