Bangladesh Muslims celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with spirit of sacrifice

With due solemnity and religious fervor, Muslims across Bangladesh on Friday celebrated Eid-ul-Azha, also known as the festival of animal sacrifice.

Before sacrificing animals in the name Allah almighty in the beginning of the day, Muslims offered special prayers seeking divine blessings, peace, progress and prosperity in tens of thousands of Eid congregations in capital Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

The main Eid congregation in Dhaka was held on Friday morning at the national Eidgah (ground specified for saying Eid prayers) where Bangladeshi President Abdul Hamid and ministers, lawmakers and elite of society said their prayers.

Like previous years, however, the country's largest Eid congregation was held at Solakia in Kishoreganj district, some 117 km northeast of Dhaka, where hundreds of thousands of Muslims from across the country gathered to offer prayers.

The Eid festival is celebrated on the 10th day of the month of the lunar Islamic calendar, after holy Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

It also occurs approximately two months and 10 days after Eid al-Fitr, another biggest religious festival which marks the end of Muslims holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The biggest festival is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Prophet Ismael as an act of obedience to Allah on this day some 4,000 years ago.

Every Muslim who has the financial means sacrifices animals and distributes the meat to family and the poor.

Some 6 million animals, mostly cows and goats, will be reportedly sacrificed during this year's Eid occasion, helping tanners to procure more than 40 percent of their annual raw and hides collections.

Millions of people, braving every conceivable discomfort on creaky and congested transport, have gone to their village homes to be with their near and dear ones and celebrate the Eid-ul-Azha.

The Bangladeshi government declared a three-day holiday starting from Thursday on occasion of the biggest Muslim festival.

The national flag has been flown atop government and non- government buildings and roadside poles to mark the festival.

Important public and private buildings were illuminated in the capital and other cities.

Bangladesh leaders have issued separate messages, greeting Muslims in Bangladesh and all over the world on the occasion when people of all professions and classes leave behind their differences and exchange greetings with each other.

On the day, improved diets will be served at government hospitals, prisons, orphanages, safe homes and shelter centers.

Millions of Muslim and non-Muslim poor people in Bangladesh, who cannot afford to buy meat even once in a year, will get a chance of eating meat this time as rich people will distribute much meat of their sacrificial animals among their poor neighbors and relatives. Endi