40 Fun Facts About Eid Al-Adha

Albania's holiday law ranks Eid al-Adha, the Arabic world's 'Greater Eid', as which of its two Eids by size?

The little one — Bajrami i Vogël — is Eid al-Adha in Albania, where Eid al-Fitr is Bajrami i Madh, the Great Bajram, the opposite of Arabic usage, in which the feast of sacrifice is the greater Eid.

Singapore's Hari Raya Haji fell twice in 2006, as it had in 1974; 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 keeps Eid al-Fitr as its official recognition of Islam and its most publicly celebrated Muslim holiday, while Eid al-Adha, a close second, 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 treats Tabaski, Korité and the Gamou as its great days, yet Christmas trees and decorations line the streets of Dakar each December, a relaxed mix that runs through Senegalese public life.

Turkey's public holiday for the Feast of Sacrifice 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 running 10–13 Dhu al-Hijjah?

The Maldives calls it Bodu Eid, the Big Eid, and Eid al-Fitr Kuda Eid, the Small Eid, which gets a shorter holiday from the 1st to the 3rd of Shawwal.

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

Eid al-Kabir, the Greater Eid, has counterparts meaning 'Large Eid' in Pashto, Kashmiri, Urdu and Hindi, while Eid al-Fitr is known in many places as the Lesser Eid.

In which month of 2025 did Eid al-Adha fall, with West Asia and Europe a day ahead of South Asia?

June 2025 saw the feast open on the 6th in West Asia, Europe and North America but on the 7th across North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, because the crescent moon is sighted region by region.

By custom, what share of the Eid al-Adha meat does the family keep, the rest going to relatives and the poor?

A third stays with the household, and the remainder is split equally between friends and relatives on one side and the poor on the other, so the feast reaches well beyond the family.

What do Turkish speakers call Eid al-Adha?

Kurban Bayramı is the name in Turkey, with close cousins across the Turkic world, while Eid al-Fitr becomes Ramazan Bayramı or, in everyday speech, Şeker Bayramı, the Sugar 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, which is how the day became Bakrid across South Asia; Bangladeshis also call it Korbanir Eid, the Eid of sacrifice.

In Pakistan, applying which decoration to the hands is a famous Eid al-Adha tradition among women?

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 — the Zuhr prayer marks its close — exactly as for Eid al-Fitr, and the sermon follows rather than precedes the prayer, the reverse of Friday's order.

If a storm or other force majeure stops the Eid al-Adha prayer on the day itself, how late may it be held?

No more than two days later is allowed: the prayer may move to the day after Eid or the one after that, and a khutbah still follows it whenever it is finally held.

The Eid prayer may begin once the sun has climbed above the horizon by roughly the height of what?

A spear's length — about three metres of sky — is the traditional mark, and the window closes when the sun reaches its meridian, so the prayer is never an afternoon one.

Per 'Amr ibn Shu'ayb's hadith, how many takbirs open the Eid prayer's second rak'ah, after a longer run in the first?

Five come in the second rak'ah after a longer opening run in the first, the practice of most schools; one school instead adds three takbirs before the recitation in the first rak'ah and three after it in the second.

Why is the Eid al-Adha prayer traditionally held earlier in the morning 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 from the one walked to the prayer is a practice of Muhammad's, alongside a bath beforehand, best clothes and the takbir chanted on the way there and back.

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 the reward Muhammad named when asked about the Arafah fast, which is why the fast is kept at home on the ninth of Dhu al-Hijjah.

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 Ibn Kathir's telling of the first qurban, drawn from Isra'iliyyat, what did Abel offer while Cain gave crops?

A sheep from Abel's flock, accepted where Cain's produce was not, is the first qurban in Ibn Kathir's account, which leans on Isra'iliyyat, the lore Muslim writers borrowed from Jewish sources.

Which term does Islamic law use for the feast-day offering itself, as distinct from dhabihah, everyday halal slaughter?

Udhiyah is the jurists' word — a specific animal, offered by a specific person, on specific days, to seek God's pleasure — and hadiths on the feast use it interchangeably with qurban.

The Shafi'i school allows the Eid offering a day longer than other schools, until sunset on which day of Dhu al-Hijjah?

The 13th is the Shafi'i cut-off; the majority hold the window runs from the morning of the 10th to sunset on the 12th, giving most Muslims three days to make the offering.

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

Hanafi jurists rank it wajib for anyone who can afford it, while the other three Sunni schools call it sunnah mu'akkadah, strongly recommended but not binding.

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 forbids fasting on the three Tashriq days that follow Eid al-Adha, calling 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 was declared a Malaysian heritage food in 2009 and Indonesian cultural heritage in 2013, and is traditionally reserved for Eid, weddings and other ceremonial gatherings.

In Surah As-Saffat, how does Abraham learn he must offer up his son, by then old enough to work beside him?

In a dream — 'I have seen in a dream that I must sacrifice you' — and Abraham shares it with his son before acting, asking 'So tell me what you think' rather than simply obeying.

What does Surah As-Saffat say God ransomed Abraham's son with, in the verse behind the feast-day offering?

A great sacrifice is all the verse says — no ram is named — so the animal of the feast rests on tradition rather than on the Quranic text itself.

Beyond the son's identity, how do Islamic sources say the Quran's account of Abraham's offering differs from Genesis?

The son willingly agreed when told of the vision, and no binding to an altar took place, so the story is told as a test of two believers' faith rather than one.

Which early Muslim historian, against the majority view, argued that the son Abraham was told to offer was Isaac?

Al-Tabari, with Ibn Qutaybah, read 'God's perfecting his mercy on Abraham and Isaac' as the rescue of Isaac; most Muslims hold the son was Ishmael, though the Quran never names him.

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

Dhabih Allah belongs to a family of epithets: Abraham is Khalil Allah, the friend of God, Moses Kalim Allah, who spoke with God, and Jesus Ruh Allah, the spirit of God.

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

Ranging in ranks — 'those who rank themselves in order' — is the oath that opens chapter 37, whose 182 verses also tell of Noah, Lot, Jonah and Elijah.

The word Eid comes from an Arabic root whose senses include which of these?

To go back, to repeat, to be accustomed: the root ʕ-y-d carries the sense of recurrence, which is how it came to mean an anniversary or feast day.

Which set reply, 'may God be pleased with you', answers the Bosnian Eid greeting that wishes a blessed Bajram?

Allah razi olsun is the answer, and both greeting and reply are Ottoman Turkish survivals in Bosnian, a legacy of four centuries of Ottoman rule.

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

Khair Mubarak — roughly 'blessings to you too' — or 'Āp ko bhi Eid Mubarak' is the reply, and while elders hold the greeting until the morning prayer is done, younger Urdu speakers fire it off at midnight.

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

Festival is the meaning — akhtar is simply the Pashto word for Eid — so Eid al-Adha becomes Loy Akhtar, the big festival, in Afghanistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.