The Kurban Festival

Time: The 10th day of the month of Dul Hajah (the 12th month on the Islamic Calendar).

Venue: Areas with large Hui, Uygur and Kazakh communities.

Origin: According to Arabic legend, Ibrahim was a pious follower of Allah. Once, in a dream, Ibrahim got Allah’s divine message for him to slaughter his own son as a sacrifice. When he was about to carry out the order, a messenger sent by Allah descended with a goat, and asked Ibrahim to sacrifice the goat instead of his own son. Since then the Muslims have been mark ing the day by slaughtering goats for the sake of safety. This gradually evolved into the kurban, a festival for slaughter goats.

What’s On: During the festival the Muslims gather in the mosque for prayers and a ceremony to slaughter the animals. Then families begin to celebrate by slaughtering cattle, goats and camels and treating friends with the meat, and the dinner table is enshrouded in a fraternal atmosphere.the Feast of the Sacrifice are that people, neighbours, relatives and friends pay visits and go to see each other. People visit the tombs of their parents, relatives or freinds of the kurban festival eve or in the morning of kurban fesrival.Young people visit their parents home and receive best wishes and blessings from them. It is a tradition to give money or little gifts to childreen. During the Feast of the Sacrifice, not only sweets but also the meat of sacrificial animal are served to guests. According to Biruni of Harezm who lived in 10th century, the reason why people serve candies during these festivals is that Cem had discovered the sweet juice inside sugar cane on a Nevruz day. In the beginning, sweet foods were only discovered the sweet juice inside sugarcane on a Nevruz day. In the beginning, sweet foods were only servedas scrambling for a goat, horse racing, and young women chasing after men for love and fun.

Uighur special food which is called Sangza. It usually is put on the table on Kurban festival and the other sweets is put around it.

on Nevruz, but this gradually became a general tradition which spread to all other festivals and festival days. In Xinjiang, the various ethnic minorities celebrate the kurban by singing and dancing,and taking part in such games	Uighur People’s table for the visitors to their home on the festival

The period between the month Sevval, in which Ramadan is celebrated, and the month Zilhicce, in which the Feast of the Sacrifice takes place lasts exactly one month and is called Aralik (meaning interval). Marrying between these two festivals is considered to be unlucky. On the first day of the Feast of the Sacrifice, hadjis sacrifice rams in Mina in Mecca.If a Muslum has the money, sacrificing is a religious

obligation. Rams, camels or cattle may be sacrificed. The sacrificial animal must be healthy and if it is female, it must not be pregnant.A number of traditions surround animal sacrificing. One-third of the meat from the sacrificed animals is left in the house. The other parts are given to relatives, neighbors and the poor.

Both during Ramadan and the Feast of the Sacrifice people come together, celebrate and entertain each other. In cities and villages, children and young people in particular meet each other at festival places and have fun. Festival areas resemble fairs in these days.