Eid-ul- Azha or the ‘festival of sacrifice’ was celebrated across the city on Wednesday with religious fervour and gaiety as thousands of faithful flocked to mosques to offer prayers.
Devotees attended prayers at various mosques in the city and hugged each other as an expression of brotherhood.
After the prayers, devotees sacrificed animals commemorating the great sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim and urged Muslims to follow his teachings and the Holy Quran. Also known as Bakrid or Eid-e-Qurban, it is the second major festival of Muslims. The meat of the sacrificed animals is distributed among neighbours, relatives and the poor. Muslims also exchanged greetings with relatives and friends and treated the visitors to their homes with sweet dishes.
large gatherings were witnessed for morning prayers at mosques at Jugsalai, Sakchi, Burmamines and Dhatkidih as people, dressed in their festive best, visited the houses of their friends and relatives and offered gifts.
This festival is popularly referred to as the ‘Festival of Sacrifice’ where goats and sheep are sacrificed as an offering and hence is also known as Eid al-Adha and Bakra Eid (Eid of the Goat). Muslims follows the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Ismail) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened into the situation and provided him with a sheep to sacrifice instead of his son.
Bakri Eid is one of the most important festivals of the Muslims when they visit their friends and families to greet each other and exchange savouries and gifts.