Less spending, high prices and fewer animal sacrifices at this year's Eid al-Adha celebrations

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Less spending, higher prices and fewer animal sacrifices subdued the usual festive mood as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha was celebrated in many parts of the world.

Eid al-Adha, known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” coincides with the final rites of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

It’s a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark, with devout Muslims buying and slaughtering animals and sharing two-thirds of the meat with the poor.

'No flour, no shelter, no mosques'

Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of the three-day feast early Friday with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes.

For the second year since the war with Israel broke out, no Muslims in Gaza were able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air, and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together.

“This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,” said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis. “There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses ... The conditions are very, very harsh.”

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza’s people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation.

“This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,” said Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience.

Prayers for Gaza

The war in Gaza and the struggle to celebrate were at the forefront of the minds of Muslims in Kenya, Imam Abdulrahman Mursal said as he led Eid prayers in the capital, Nairobi.

“We ask Allah to hear their (Palestinian) cries. We feel their pain, as much as we are far from them,” Mursal said. “But what unites us is our Muslim brotherhood, so we ask Allah to give them victory and to give victory to all the other Muslims wherever they are, if they are facing any kind of oppression.”

Eid preparations in South Asia

Eid al-Adha commemorates the Quranic tale of Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering. In the Christian and Jewish telling, Abraham is ordered to kill another son, Isaac.

South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh will celebrate Eid al-Adha on Saturday. Ahead of the festival, many Muslims in the region were turning to livestock markets to buy and sell millions of animals for sacrifice.

In New Delhi, sellers were busy tending to their animals and negotiating with potential buyers.

Mohammad Ali Qureshi, one of the sellers, said this year his goats were fetching higher prices than last year: “Earlier, the sale of goats was slow, but now the market is good. Prices are on the higher side."

Festival preparations also were peaking in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where many Muslims dye sheep and goats in henna before they are sacrificed.

“We are following the tradition of Prophet Ibrahim,” said Riyaz Wani, a resident in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, as his family applied henna on a sheep they plan to sacrifice.

Indonesia markets changing

In Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, Muslim worshippers were shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets and the Istiqlal Grand Mosque was filled for morning prayers Friday.

Outside Jakarta, the Jonggol Cattle Market bustled with hundreds of traders hoping to sell to buyers looking for sacrificial animals. While sales increased ahead of Eid, sellers said their businesses have lost customers in recent years due to economic hardship following the COVID-19 pandemic.

A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2022 and 2023 significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep, though Indonesia’s government has worked to overcome that outbreak.

Rahmat Debleng, one of the sellers in the market, said before the pandemic and the FMD outbreak, he could sell more than 100 cows two weeks ahead of Eid al-Adha. But on the eve of the celebration this year, only 43 of his livestock were sold and six cows are still left in his stall.

Though the threat of a foot-and-mouth outbreak looms large, declining sales are mostly because of economic hardship, Debleng said.

Jakarta city administration data recorded the number of sacrificial animals available this year at 35,133, a decline of 57% compared to the previous year.

The Indonesian government will make Monday an additional holiday after Friday’s festival to allow people more time with their families.

Eid momentum is expected to support economic growth in Indonesia, where household consumption helps drive GDP. It contributed over 50% to the economy last year, though analysts expect more subdued consumer spending in 2025.

Stoning the devil at the Hajj

More than 1.6 million Muslims were in Mina, Saudi Arabia, on Friday to perform the Hajj ritual, the symbolic stoning of the devil.

Mina is where Muslims believe the Prophet Ibrahim’s faith was tested when God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Ismail.

Ibrahim was prepared to submit to the command, but then God stayed his hand, sparing his son. In the Christian and Jewish versions of the story, Abraham is ordered to kill his other son, Isaac.

The Eid al-Adha holiday, observed worldwide by Muslims, celebrates Ibrahim’s submission to God.

Importance of solidarity and prayer on Congo

As Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha, the holiday was tinged with bitterness in the rebel-controlled city of Goma, in eastern Congo.

Under the looming shadow of the occupation, hundreds of worshippers wearing colourful tunics and hijabs gathered at Goma’s Stadium of Unity to pray for peace.

The decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January, when the M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma.

Despite the challenging situation in the region, those gathered expressed their gratitude for being able to celebrate the holiday.

“We were anxious because of the war, but by God’s grace, we made it here,” Fatuma Ramazani, a Muslim resident of Goma, told The Associated Press. “We prayed ‘in’ peace, and that is why we prayed ‘for’ peace to return,” he added.

“Islam is a religion of peace, so we can only pray for peace and for God’s grace to help all those involved in this security issue to see how to prioritize peace,” Grâce Omar, another worshipper, said.

In the crowded stadium, imams emphasized the importance of solidarity and prayer in difficult times.

“Today is a special day for Muslims, so I take this opportunity to pray to God to bring peace to Congo in general, and to areas plagued by violence, like Goma, in particular. It is time for people to say ‘enough’ to all that is happening in the country,” said Imam Sheikh Sabiti Djaffar Al Katanty.

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Associated Press journalists Shonal Ganguly, in New Delhi, Dar Yasin in Srinagar, India, Inaara Gangji, in Nairobi, and Justin Kabumba, in Goma, contributed to this report.