Nepal celebrates Eid-Al Adha with elan

Eid-Al Adha, the second biggest festival of the Islam community, is being marked with fanfare and gaiety in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Hundreds of Islam followers on Sunday morning thronged the Kashmiri Takiya Mosque in the capital Kathmandu taking part in the mass namaz recitation ceremony. Eid-Al Adha is observed on the 70th day of Eid-Ul-Fitr or Ramadan.

On this day, the Muslims visit the nearest mosque after a morning bath and attend a mass prayer to read the Namaz. After completing the reading of the Namaz, they exchange greetings by hugging one another.

"This year's Eid is entirely different from those of earlier years because it is being observed in a gap of two years, after the gap of two years, we are observing it in the third year (since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic) which has made it different from the previous ones," Ikrar Khan, participant of Namaj Ceremony in capital Kathmandu.

Meanwhile, the government has given a public holiday on Sunday to mark the occasion of Eid-al Adha, the Bakra Eid. The Ministry of Home Affairs has notified that as stated in the March 10 issue of Nepal Gazette the government has decided to grant a holiday on the occasion of Eid-al-Adha.

The festival is observed commemorating the moment when Ibrahim, the first of the Old Testament, became ready to sacrifice his son at the command of Allah, the Muslim God, some 1435 years back as per the Hijri calendar, said Nirdosh Ali, chairperson of the National Muslim Commission.

Reading Namaj, observing Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca Medina) and Roja (fasting), and offering donations and sacrifices are the five main good deeds that are supposed to be followed by the Muslim people.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has extended best wishes to all Nepali Muslim sisters and brothers living in the country and abroad on the occasion of the Bakar Eid festival today.

He wished peace, prosperity, and happiness on this occasion. PM Deuba wished that the festival would help conserve traditions and cultural values, thereby building a cultured society.

He believed that the festival would further promote harmony, fraternity, and tolerance, thereby contributing to national unity.

Likewise, President Vidya Devi Bhandari has wished peace, prosperity and happiness to the Nepali Muslim community living in the country and abroad on the occasion of the Bakar Eid today.

President Bhandari reminded that Bakar Eid is the festival giving a message of restraint, patience, global peace, and fraternity.

"Nepali society is a beautiful abode of diverse ethnicities, languages and cultures," she said, adding that unity among diversity is Nepal's identity and strength. She also believed that the festival would further strengthen national unity and harmony.