The Id al-Fitr
5 min readThe Id al-Fitr is also called Lesser Bairam, which is the grand festival of the Islamic ethnic groups in Xinjiang, such as the Uygur, the Hui, the Kazak, the Kirgiz, the tajik, the Uzbek and the tartar, held on October 1 of the islamicalender, mainly for celebrating the expiration of the Ramadan. According toExcept for the children as well as elderly patients and pregnant women, eachthe Islamic rules, September of the Islamic calendar each year is the ramada adult(over 12 years old) Muslim must fast for one month each year The fast is one of the five lessons of the Islam During the fasting period people must purify the heart and restrict the passion, eating two meals every day, having the meal before sunrise and after sunset, absolutely not eating or drinking in the daytime, strictly speaking, even not swallowing saliva. If the new moon appears on the evening of the 29 day of the ramadan, the next day will be the Lesser Bairam; if not, the fast is continued for one more day, and the second day is the Lesser Bairam celebrating the success of one month of the Saum. both the start and the end of the ramadan are subjected to the appearance of the new moon For ethnic groups such as the Uygur and the Uzbek, the relatives and the neighbors invite each other enthusiastically to share iftars.
There are two religious legends about the origin of the Id al-Fitr spreading among the Uygur people. According to the legend, in ancient times, the children ceaselessly cried for hunger because of the famine. The mother felt helpless, so she placed fist-sized pebbles into a pot and deceived the children that she was cooking Hungutmak (a kind of boiled meal made with corn meal, shaped like buns and eaten with soup). The mother poked with a stick every now and then to show to the children so as to let the children think that the food was uneatable and they should be patient because the food was not cooked thoroughly and was too hard. Time after time, the children had no patience to wait any longer and cried for the food The mother had no choicebut to uncover a pot cover and she wanted to poke with the stick to show to the children again. Unexpectedly, the stick successfully poked into the pebble The mother was surprised and looked carefully what surprised her was that the original pebbles had turned to be”Chamgur”(turnip) for satisfying theirhunger. People believed that it was a miracle shown by the god to save them They rushed about telling the news and congratulated to each other for being saved, singing and dancing, celebrating by various entertainment types tothank the God’s grace Since then, people have commemorated that day every year by the same way, and the custom has been going on According to the other legend, in ancient times, people hid themselves in dense forests in deep mountains for avoiding strong attacks and plunders. They were afraid to make a fire to cook, and only dared to make the fire to cook after dark, because they were afraid that the rising smoke would be discovered by enemies. So year after year, handed down from generation to generation, the habit has become the custom.
Half a month before the festival, people start to do cleanings indoors and outdoors, wash clothes and containers, sew the new clothes fry the fried dough twists, prepare the crusty pancakes and the cookies and other festival food. On the morning of the festival, the adult men take the bath and then gather in the mosque to do the grand religious service. After the religious service is finished, each family is headed by the elder in the family to the graveyards to pray for the dead relatives. During the festival, each family prepares abundant festival food such as fried dough twists, candies and ookies. People of all ages and both sexes are dressed in the festival clothes and visit their relatives and friends, saying “happy new year”to each other and gathering merrily. Besides, various entertainment activities are held, and the joyful festival atmosphere is here and there. Unlike other ethnic groups, the Hui people regard the Id al-Fitr as a big festival. the tajik people also celebrate the festival, but they don’t fast. At present, a lot of Islamic people don’t fast in the Ramadan period but they regard the Id al-Fitr as their traditional festivalto celebrate.
The Corban and the Id al-Fitr derive from the Islam, and the holiday time called the hijrah calendar, which is the pure lunar calendar regarding one change cycle of moon phases as one month and regarding 12 months as one year with neither considering the time that the earth revolves around the sun nor setting the leap year. Therefore, the islamic calendar has 354 or 355 days n a year, 11 days less than the Gregorian calendar. About every 32 years, the Islamic calendar is one year earlier than the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the dates of the festivals of the muslim are not fixed according to the gregorian 11 days earlier than that in the previous year. In fact, the dates of all the oout calendar or the lunar calendar. The date of the same festival usually is festivals are fixed according to the Islamic calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar the date of the festival is cycled for 2 to 3 times in each month every 32.6 years. According to the common life of people, everyone may experience different feelings of celebrating the festival in four seasons throughout the life, which is the wonderful point of the Islamic calendar. Over 14 centuries, the Hijrah calendar has been used as the religious calendar of Arab countries and Muslims since its formulation So far, all Muslims believing in the islam in china are still in accordance with the calculation of the calendar in the religious activities such as the fasting, the pilgrimage and the festival. It should be pointed out that the Corban and the Id al-Fitr have evolved from the original religious festivals into the national festivals of all the ethnic groups believing in the islam now.
