Islamic Festivals: the Fast-breaking Festival(or End of Ramadan) and Corban Festival

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In China,10 minority groups, including Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Khalkhas, Salar, Dongxiang, Tajik, Tatar, Bonan and Uzbek, believe in Islam. The word Islam is transliterated from Arabian, meaning compliance and peace, to believe in Allah, the highest god of the universe, and to comply with his will. People who believe in Islam are called Muslim, meaning”complier”.

Traditional festivals for people who believe in Islamare mainly religious festivals like the Fast-breakingFestival, Corban Festival and Mawlid Festival. Besides,they also have their own New Year. As Muslims all attachgreat importance to the End of Ramadan, Corban Festival, their celebration of the New Year is not as grand as the Spring Festival for other ethnic groups.

Islam has its own calendar, which is called the Hui calendar in China. In Hui calendar, the Fast-breaking Festival is on the first day of the tenth month; the Corban Festival is on the tenth day of the twelfth month and theMawlid Festival is on the twelfth day of the third month.

The Mawlid Festival is the birthday of Islam Prophet Mohammed, on which Muslims assemble to chant sutra and have luncheon together.

1) The Fast-breaking Festival The Fast-breaking Festival is also known as Roza, Persian word meaning fast. The ninth month in Islamic calendar is the Ramadan, in which Muslim should fast during the daytime and can only eat before sunrise or after sunset. In this month sexual intercourse is forbidden. The purpose of Ramadan is to urge people to reflect on their sin and to make wealthy people experience the suffering of hunger. The whole Ramadan is grand and solemn. For Muslims, the Ramadan is the most honorable month and the End of Ramadan is the most valuable festival.

The first day of the tenth month is the end of the Ramadan and also called the Raya Festival. People celebrate the festival for three days, in which people get up early, take bath, burn incense and dress up before they go to mosques. They will have grand worshipping ceremonies, listen to the sermon given by the Imam (the one who leads the worshipping ceremony) and kneel in salute to the direction of Mekka while chanting the Alcoran. After that, they will go to the cemetery to walk around the tombs as to recall the deceased ancestors. Then they have festival activities and enjoy festival food such as sanzi,a fried food made of wheat, and youxiang, fried cake. Youxiang is an indispensable food in festivals. It is said that the smell of youxiang may please the deceased. In the festival, people will also dress their ethnic costumes and visit relatives and friends. Some young people would like to have their wedding ceremony on the Raya Festival.

During the festival, Uygur, Kazak, Tajik and Khalkhas will have sheep capturing competition, horse race and shooting competition. In the horse race, the horses are dressed up and decorated with red cloth and flowery adornments.

2) Corban Festival

The Corban Festival is actually the Dashain Festival. Dashian in Arabian means sacrifice. On the day, Muslims should slaughter their animals and offer them to Allah.

According to religious legend, brahim, the primogenitor of Arabian in Northern Arab, dreamed about Allah. In the dream, Allah asked him to kill his son to offer as a sacrifice. When Ibrahim was about to kill his son, Allah sent a sheep to be killed instead. As Ibrahim hadshowed his piety, he became the sacred primogenitor. And the custom of slaughtering animals to offer to Allah was passed down.

Before the Corban Festival, people have to do all kinds of preparations like cleaning the room, cooking youxiang and sanzi, and buying the animal to be sacrificed.

In the morning of Corban Festival，all Muslims have to takebath to full-length and then dress up to join the assembly ceremony in mosque.Then they visit the tomb of their ancestors，pray for them，clean the dried wood on the tomb，plant a new twig and water it before they leave.

In Corban Festival people have very formal animal slaughtering ceremonies.A wealthy family should kill a sheep，or kill an ox or a camel together with other rich families.It is forbidden to kill lamb which is younger than two years or calf and camel which is younger than 3 years old.The animal must not be blind or lame，or lack of ear or tail.It must be strong and handsome.The animal slaughtered must not be sold.but should be sent to the afiinn.

Corban Festival

mosque, to people working in the mosque, or to relatives, friends and poor people.

During this festival, people pay greeting calls to eachother. First people should visit families that just had funerals to condole with them. Secondly people will greet their parents and parents-in-law. And thirdly they will greet neighbors and the senior people. For other greeting activities, people will go in groups of three or five, usually men with men and women with women. People also have feasts, sing and play musical instruments together to entertain themselves. Celebration of the festival varies in different places. In some places people even organize entertaining sports activities.