{"id":31,"date":"2007-10-12T12:27:01","date_gmt":"2007-10-12T12:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html"},"modified":"2007-10-12T12:27:01","modified_gmt":"2007-10-12T12:27:01","slug":"these-are-the-days-of-eid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html","title":{"rendered":"These are the Days of Eid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"eid_children.jpg\"<\/a>Why is it that Eid is a three-day affair? Perhaps it is because Muslims (despite their best efforts) end up celebrating it on different days. For those Muslims who follow the lead of Saudi Arabia (as some of the more conservative mosques do), the Eid celebration is today. However, for most Muslims in America who follow either the calculation or the moon sighting methods, Eid is tomorrow, on Saturday. A weekend Eid is something special — we don’t have to take time out of work or pull our kids out of school for the day — and I intend to make the most of it.
\nIf you’re not used to seeing Muslims, Eid is the day where you are most likely to see groups of them. Unfortunately (and we’re working on this), it will probably be because the parking situation around the location of Eid prayer is horrific, or because all the cabs seem to have disappeared off the streets. With the Muslim population in America growing as fast as it is, the average mosque is not big enough to accommodate all the worshippers, so larger venues are booked, often with many local mosque communities joining forces.
\nI’ve been to Eid services in convention centers, football and basketball stadiums, concert halls, and large city parks. Despite the larger size of the venue, multiple prayers (usually at 8 am and 10 am) are needed. Even in small towns, thousands of Muslims show up, because many otherwise non-observant Muslims show up for Eid. Here in Austin, we expect around 10,000 worshippers, and I’ve been to prayers in larger cities where the numbers approach 75,000. You’ll probably see footage of your local Eid celebrations on the evening news.<\/p>\n


\nIt’s quite a sight to see, especially with everyone dressed in their finest clothes. Many men are dressed in suits and ties, or the ethnic dress of their countries of origin. Women are adorned with every color of the rainbow, and all are sitting in well-organized rows facing Mecca. The service itself is a simple one – two short cycles of prayer, followed by an Eid sermon (khutbah<\/i>), and that’s it. Obligatory charitable donations (zakat<\/i>) are due sometime before the prayer starts.
\nOne of the most unique and beautiful things about the Eid prayer is the Eid takbir<\/i>, or praise of God, which occurs as people gather and wait for the prayer to begin. It is the closest thing you’ll find to congregational singing in Muslim religious practice. Congregants are handed sheets of paper with translations\/transliterations so they can follow along, and everyone is encouraged to chant in unison. After the prayer, there is a lot of hugging, catching up, and distributing gifts to children, followed by something that now seems very strange: breakfast by daylight. The remainder of the day is filled with Eid parties and carnivals held throughout the city.
\nLet me take this moment to wish all of you Eid mubarak<\/i> (happy Eid). If you really want to make your Muslim neighbor’s day, give them the gift of the Eid mubarak<\/i> greeting. They may not expect it, but trust me — they will be very grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why is it that Eid is a three-day affair? Perhaps it is because Muslims (despite their best efforts) end up celebrating it on different days. For those Muslims who follow the lead of Saudi Arabia (as some of the more conservative mosques do), the Eid celebration is today. However, for most Muslims in America who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"yoast_head":"\nThese are the Days of Eid - Hungry for Ramadan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"These are the Days of Eid - Hungry for Ramadan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why is it that Eid is a three-day affair? Perhaps it is because Muslims (despite their best efforts) end up celebrating it on different days. For those Muslims who follow the lead of Saudi Arabia (as some of the more conservative mosques do), the Eid celebration is today. However, for most Muslims in America who…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hungry for Ramadan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-12T12:27:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/files\/import\/eid_children.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"These are the Days of Eid - Hungry for Ramadan","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"These are the Days of Eid - Hungry for Ramadan","og_description":"Why is it that Eid is a three-day affair? Perhaps it is because Muslims (despite their best efforts) end up celebrating it on different days. For those Muslims who follow the lead of Saudi Arabia (as some of the more conservative mosques do), the Eid celebration is today. However, for most Muslims in America who…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html","og_site_name":"Hungry for Ramadan","article_published_time":"2007-10-12T12:27:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/files\/import\/eid_children.jpg"}],"author":"Shahed Amanullah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html","name":"These are the Days of Eid - Hungry for Ramadan","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/files\/import\/eid_children.jpg","datePublished":"2007-10-12T12:27:01+00:00","dateModified":"2007-10-12T12:27:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7dca4ca9595bf68bf7d143d606f7cb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/files\/import\/eid_children.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/ramadan\/files\/import\/eid_children.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/2007\/10\/these-are-the-days-of-eid.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"These are the Days of Eid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/","name":"Hungry for Ramadan","description":"A Beliefnet blog throughout the month of Ramadan","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/#\/schema\/person\/ed7dca4ca9595bf68bf7d143d606f7cb","name":"Shahed Amanullah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/cba\/cba5d425c6c728112875b7dd5e581644x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/cba\/cba5d425c6c728112875b7dd5e581644x96.jpg","caption":"Shahed Amanullah"},"description":"As editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com, Shahed Amanullah is an award-winning journalist who writes regularly about the challenges and opportunities facing Islam in America. Named one of ten \"Muslim visionaries\" by Islamica Magazine, Shahed's work and writings have been featured in magazines (Newsweek), newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune), radio shows (BBC News, National Public Radio, and major websites (BeliefNet.com). Television appearances include \"Nightline with Ted Koppel\", CNN Headline News, the \"Today Show\", and \"Hannity & Colmes\". Shahed is the founder of Halalfire Media, a network of Islamic-themed websites with nearly 6 million visitors annually. Along with altmuslim.com, signature properties include zabihah.com, salatomatic.com, halalapalooza.com, and unitedmuslims.org. He has also served as a board member for the United Muslims of America, the Muslim Public Service Network, and the Muslim Youth Camp of California. He is a general partner in Zakat Community Ventures, a startup \"venture philanthropy\" fund dedicated to promoting Islamic charitable values.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/author\/samanullah"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ramadan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}