How many days until Eid al-Adha?

About Eid al-Adha

Eid al-Adha, meaning the "Festival of Sacrifice," is the second of the two major holidays in Islam and commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience, a story shared in broad outline across Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions, before a substitution was made. It falls on the tenth day of Dhu al-Hijjah, the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and coincides with the culmination of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca for those able to undertake it that year. Its date shifts every year on the Gregorian calendar because the Islamic calendar is purely lunar and unsynced to the solar year, causing the holiday to drift roughly ten to eleven days earlier each year and cycle through every season over a period of about three decades. As with other Islamic lunar dates, the precise start of Dhu al-Hijjah, and therefore the exact date of Eid al-Adha, has traditionally depended on the sighting of the new crescent moon, meaning the confirmed date can vary by a day between countries depending on local sighting practices or reliance on astronomical calculation. Observance typically includes communal prayers, the ritual sacrifice of an animal by those who are able, with the meat traditionally divided among family, friends, and those in need, and family gatherings over the following days. A common misconception is treating Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr as the same holiday under different names; they are in fact two distinct occasions roughly two months apart, commemorating different events, with Eid al-Adha tied specifically to the Hajj season and the story of sacrifice rather than the end of Ramadan's fasting.

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