Eid al-Adha: Global crises overshadow Muslim feast of sacrifice

Thousands of pilgrims set off for Mecca on Saturday — it's the last leg of the Hajj pilgrimage. Nearly a million Muslims from all over the world came to the holy city this year, making it the biggest pilgrimage since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At dawn, the faithful performed the symbolic "stoning of the devil": The ritual marks the beginning of the annual feast of sacrifice.

Sharpening their knives: a blacksmith in Peshawar, Pakistan, gets his axe ready. Eid al-Adha, which means "feast of sacrifice," commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim (whom Christians and Jews call Abraham) to sacrifice his son. Many Muslims celebrate the four-day festival by ritually slaughtering livestock and distributing the meat among relatives, neighbors and the needy.

A child in Jakarta, Indonesia, observes a sacrificial ritual through a hole in a tarp. An outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease has disrupted the normally booming goat, cow and sheep business ahead of Eid al-Adha in the world's most populous Muslim country. The highly contagious viral disease can also be transmitted to humans under certain conditions.

Numerous believers have gathered to pray together at the Jama Masjid mosque on the second day of Eid. The mosque in the old city of Delhi is the largest in India and one of the largest places of worship in the entire Islamic world. For the past two years, large prayer gatherings have been banned in most countries due to the pandemic.

In addition to the religious rites, Eid al-Adha is also a happy family festival, which in some places becomes a street party. Here in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, young people have fun at a playground during Eid.

For the animals that get sacrificed, the festival is a less cheerful occasion: A bull in Karachi, Pakistan, desperately tries to escape his certain death. The mood of many believers is also dampened by skyrocketing food prices worldwide as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Libya, a sheep costs up to the equivalent of €250, the AP news agency reported.

In Egypt, prices for livestock have risen by up to 30%, making the ritual sacrificial animal unaffordable for many this year. Traditionally, large animal markets take place in the run-up to Eid al-Adha in Muslim countries, such as here in Maaret Misrin in northern Syria. Different animals are sacrificed in different regions, from sheep to cattle to camels.

Ukrainian Muslim soldiers pray on Eid al-Adha in the mosque of Konstantinovka. The mosque is the last in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Donbas — all others in the region are now in Russian hands. "We have no idea what is happening in the occupied territories and what situation the Muslims are in there," former Mufti Said Ismahilov (right) told AP.

In another part of the world, believers in Mosul in northern Iraq have reason to rejoice: for the first time since the destruction of the famous Al-Nouri mosque by the terrorist militia "Islamic State" in 2017, people there finally have a place to pray again. The reconstruction of the mosque was completed in time for the feast of sacrifice.

Pied piper of Hamelin? No, clown of Idlib! The costumed man is part of a theatrer ensemble that entertains children with performances and dances on the occasion of Eid — bringing some levity to the war-torn region in northwest Syria.

The feast of sacrifice is, of course, celebrated not only in majority-Muslim countries, but all over the world: This little boy plays with soap bubbles at a festival celebrating Eid al-Adha at Bush Terminal Piers Park in New York City.