Steem Engagement Challenge S7-W1: Share Your Favorite Festival"

Greetings from @saimaqam on this wonderful day. I am back again to write on a wonderful theme which is about a favorite festival in Steemit for the Pakistan community.

Festivals are cultural or religious events that are celebrated by a group of people living in a particular place or following a particular religion. Religious festivals are ideally meant to be celebrated by people of particular faith whereas cultural festivals are celebrated by people following a particular culture. For example, Eid is a religious festival of Muslims, Holi is a religious festival of Hindus, and Christmas is a religious festival of Christians. Cherry blossom festival is a cultural festival of Japanese, and Navroz is a cultural festival of Kashmiris in North India.

As for my favorite festival is concerned, Eid is my favorite festival. Muslims celebrate two Eids in a year, Eid ul Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Eid ul Fitr is celebrated after the completion of the holy month of Ramadan. Eid ul Adha is celebrated on the 10th day of the holy month of Dhul Hijjah.

Eid ul Fitr marks the conclusion of the Holi month of fasting by Muslims whereas Eid ul Adha is celebrated on the 10th of Dil hijjah to commemorate the devotion of profit Ibrahim towards Almighty Allah.

Both Eids are celebrated by Muslims with a lot of enthusiasm and pleasure. The preparations for Eid begin two to 3 days before the actual festival. During preparation for Eid, people go for shopping especially parents make shopping for kids, people buy eatables for meals, markets are blowing with people, roads are full of vehicles, etc.

On the actual day of Eid, early morning hours are spent by people preparing for special Eid prayers. People congratulate each other. Kids crack fire crackers as they are given money by parents and relatives. Adults visit relatives and congratulate them.

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Eid ul Adha is mainly spent by Muslims making sacrifices of animals like sheep, camel, ox, cow, etc. The meat is divided into three parts, one-third is distributed among relatives, one-third is distributed among neighbors and the remaining one-third is kept at home.

The logic behind sacrifices is that they commemorate the devotion of prophet Ibrahim who was blessed with a lone male child at an age of 80 years and then was ordered by the Almighty to sacrifice him for the sake of God. It was done by God to test his faith. Prophet Ibrahim was so strong believer in his faith that he got ready to sacrifice his son. When he took his son for sacrifice, he asked his son whether he was ready for sacrifice. His son's faith was equally strong and he told his father to obey the command of the Almighty. When prophet Ibrahim took a sharp knife and started to cut his son's throat, an animal was sent by GOD from heaven and replaced his son and got cut. God then revealed the logic behind this test. We celebrate this festival to commemorate the devotion of the prophet. Had the animal not been sent from heaven, people would have had to sacrifice their beloved sons.

Neither religious nor cultural festivals are celebrated in their pure form but they are amalgamated. The tinge of the intermingling of festivals imparts a beauty of its own to this festival. Whatever is reason or logic behind the celebrations of these festivals, they are full of positive vibes and impart the same to the people.

Thanks