Eid-ul-Adha to be celebrated on September 12

The Home Affairs Ministry on Thursday announced that Eid-ul-Adha will be celebrated on Monday, September 12 and that this day will therefore be a national holiday. This Feast of Sacrifice is an important event to Muslims and is celebrated on the 10th day of the last month of the Muslim calendar. This festival also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Eid al-Adha, or “Festival of Sacrifice”, is celebrated by Muslims to mark the occasion when Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream and asked him to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, to demonstrate his devotion to the Almighty. Ibrahim was about to press ahead with the sacrifice when an angel stopped him and gave him a lamb to kill instead. The story is designed to demonstrate how Ibrahim’s devotion passed even the sternest test. Today the story is commemorated on Eid by the sacrifice of a sheep, goat, cow, buffalo or camel and sharing the meat with relatives, neighbors, friends or the poor.