ANKARA/ISTANBUL
Turkey began to celebrate four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, or Feast of Sacrifice.
Besides Turkey; Macedonia and Albania began to celebrate Eid al-Adha today, while other Islamic countries will begin to celebrate on October 26, and Pakistan, India and Bangladesh on October 27 due to different calculating methods in Islamic calendar, or Hijri calendar.
Early in the morning, mosques were filled with people who performed their Eid al-Adha prayers, and celebrated their holiday.
President Abdullah Gul is celebrating the holiday in Ankara, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul.
Gul performed his prayer in Sungulu Mosque in capital, and celebrated the holiday with the people in the mosque.
Premier Erdogan, who performed his prayer in Mimar Sinan Mosque in Istanbul, expressed hope that the terrorism in Turkey and the violence in Syria would end soon and peace would prevail in the region.
Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to honor the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead.
The basis for the Eid al-Adha comes from the 196th verse of sura 2 (Al-Baqara) of the Quran.
Eid al-Adha celebrations start after the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descent from Mount Arafat.
The meat from the sacrificed animal is divided into three parts. The family retains one third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the other third is given to the poor and needy. The regular charitable practices of the Muslim community are demonstrated during Eid al-Adha by concerted efforts to see that no impoverished person is left without an opportunity to partake in the sacrificial meal during these days.
Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. Being a purely lunar calendar, it is not synchronized with the seasons. With an annual drift of 10 or 11 days, the seasonal relation repeats about every 33 Islamic years.
Writing by Gokce Cansunar
