Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are the two biggest Muslim holidays, each with its own rich food traditions.
Eid al-Fitr vs. Eid al-Adha: What’s the Difference?
Published on Apr. 18, 2025
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are two of the most sacred and important holidays celebrated by Muslims all over the world. Growing up in a middle-class family in Iran, we weren’t religiously observant, but at the same time these holidays played an important part of our social lives. During Ramadan, we often shared Iftars (the fast-breaking meals) with relatives and friends, and at the end of the month we celebrated Eid al-Fitr with the elders.
Eid al-Adha commemorates Ibrahim’s test of faith, and the ram that was offered as sacrifice in place of his son. Muslims who can afford it sacrifice an animal—usually a lamb—and distribute the meat among family, neighbors and the poor. The idea is that everyone should be able to enjoy meat on Eid al-Adha. For us, that meant lots of hearty braises and lamb stews during the holiday.
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Why are there two Eids?
The word Eid simply means festivity or celebration in Arabic. The most important holiday for Muslims is Eid al-Fitr, which occurs at the end of Ramadan. Eid al-Adha is the second most important holiday for Muslims.
I often get asked what’s the difference between Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, and I always find a lot of joy in relaying the story of the holidays connected to Islamic religious practice. The Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—are connected, yet they all have different holidays and celebrations. For example, while Muslims celebrate two Eids, Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter, and Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah and Passover.
What is Eid al-Fitr?
Eid al-Fitr is the great celebration at the end of the month of Ramadan. Because Islamic celebrations are based on a lunar calendar, Eid al-Fitr happens when the new moon appears in the month of Shawwal. Shawwal follows Ramadan, which is the holy month of fasting, prayer and reflection. Eid al-Fitr is the celebration of breaking the fast.
As the lunar year is shorter than the solar year, Eid al-Fitr doesn’t correspond to a fixed date on the Gregorian calendar. And because the holiday begins when the moon is sighted, a cloudy day can cause it to be pushed back. In 2025, Eid al-Fitr occurred on March 31st.
How is Eid al-Fitr celebrated?
After the moon sighting, Muslims around the world celebrate by wearing their best clothes, attending a special Eid mass prayer, and visiting family and friends. Some people give children money, a gift known as Eidi. People offer sweets and sweet beverages and share food.
My late grandparents would ensure that we pay Fitrana (also known as Zakat al-Fitr). This is a special charity specific to Eid al-Fitr. The charity requires all who are able to donate enough money to cover the cost of a simple meal for one person. This way, all Muslims can celebrate Eid al-Fitr.
The feasting and the offering of food and drinks is an important part of Eid al-Fitr. This is usually combined with street celebrations that involve music, dancing and lights.
Eid al-Fitr food traditions
My absolute favorite treats for Eid al-Fitr (and Ramadan) are zulbia and bamiyeh (also spelled “zoolbia” and “bamieh”). These traditional Persian sweets are popular in Iran and Afghanistan for the holiday. Zulbia is a deep-fried, spiral-shaped sweet made from a thin batter (often made with yogurt or starch), which is fried until crispy and then soaked in a sugar or saffron syrup. It’s similar to jalebi in South Asia, though it’s usually lighter and flavored with rosewater or cardamom. Bamiyeh are small round or oval fritters, kind of like mini doughnuts, churros or even gulab jamun, which are also fried and dipped in syrup. They have a soft, chewy texture and are flavored with the same kind of fragrant syrup as zulbia. They’re excellent with a cup of black tea.
Sweets are very important for Eid al-Fitr, which is known as the “sweet Eid,” because of the wide variety of desserts, candies, cookies and other bakery items that are served. During Eid al-Fitr, the food traditions vary a lot depending on the country. In South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, people often begin the day with sheer khurma, a sweet, milk-based dish made with toasted vermicelli, dates and nuts. In the Middle East, ma’amoul is a favorite. These are small, buttery cookies filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts and dusted with powdered sugar. And, of course, there’s baklava everywhere.
There are plenty of dishes you can make to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. In many parts of the world, people make grand savory dishes like biryani (spiced rice with meat), korma (a rich, slow-cooked curry), lamb with rice pilaf and samosas (fried pastry filled with meat or vegetables)—especially when hosting guests.
What is Eid al-Adha?
In Arabic, Eid literally translates to “festival,” “holiday” or “feast,” and Adha translates to “sacrifice,” making this holiday the festival of the sacrifice. The story behind the sacrifice involves the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim as referred to by Muslims) dreaming of God (Allah), who told him to sacrifice his son. In Islam, a prophet’s dreams are highly regarded, and often contain messages from Allah.
To show his commitment to Allah, Ibrahim prepared to sacrifice his son, which his son encouraged him to do. (The son is accepted by most Muslims to be Ismail, though his identity is disputed.) In the process of preparing for the sacrifice, Satan (Shaytaan) attempted to distract Ibrahim from carrying out the sacrifice. Ibrahim was able to fight Shaytaan away by throwing pebbles. (To honor this act, Muslims throw stones at the symbolic pillars during Hajj.)
Allah saw that Ibrahim was prepared to sacrifice his son, and honored both father and son by sending a ram from heaven to be sacrificed instead. The holiday honors both Ibrahim’s commitment to Allah as well as the survival of the son.
As Islamic festivities are based on a lunar calendar (where each month lasts only 28 days), they don’t correspond to a fixed day in the Gregorian calendar. Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar, which is on June 7th 2025.
How is Eid al-Adha celebrated?
Muslims around the world make animal sacrifices to commemorate and honor the story of commitment and faith. Truthfully, I’ve celebrated Eid al-Adha differently over the years. As a kid, we would get gifts from our parents and eat meals together, but we don’t have a lot of extended family in the United States, so our celebrations were always smaller and quieter. I never really understood the importance of the holiday until I became an adult.
Today, I typically fast the day before Eid al-Adha and break my fast at sundown, which is when the celebration begins. As an adult, I have gathered with my community at my local mosque, and met with friends and family to share meals and donate food or money to families in need. This is how I’ve come to celebrate this holiday, but what I find most beautiful about Islam is how my relationship to the religion is ever-evolving, and how my practice looks different with each year that passes.
This year, I plan to fast for the days leading up to the celebration and celebrate Eid al-Adha with my husband by purchasing lots of halal meat and cooking for others (Inshallah, as we like to say, which means “if Allah wills it”).
Out of curiosity, I asked my mom what her experience was like growing up, and was surprised to learn that she celebrated the holiday in a completely different way with her family in Egypt. She grew up around lots of family in a small village, and they took great pleasure in the celebration of this holiday. They would either sacrifice an animal themselves from their own livestock, or go to a butcher who would sacrifice an animal in a halal way.
In Arabic, halal means permissible or acceptable by Allah, which applies to various aspects of Islamic life. In this instance, halal meat refers to an animal that has been killed while alive and healthy, and killed in a particular way to limit its suffering. A shahada (dedication prayer) is also read during the killing to honor Allah.
Once my mom and her family had the meat, they’d separate it into bags for distribution and give the meat away to families in their neighborhood. At this point in the story, my mom said, “It always feels better to give than to receive, in my opinion.”
The sentiment of sharing with each other and with their communities really stuck with me. The role of community is very important in Islamic tradition, and we make an effort to look out for one another with mutual aid and support. To hear that my mom’s favorite part of this holiday involved giving food away to others—something that Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) would do regularly—didn’t surprise me at all.
Eid al-Adha food traditions
Nowadays, with different health and dietary restrictions, not everyone celebrates with food in the same way. When my mom was growing up, meat was a customary part of the meal—whether minced and added to fattah (sort of like Middle Eastern nachos) or served in biryani, maqluba or stews. Today, you might expect to see lots of roasted vegetables, chickpeas, salads, stuffed grape leaves (called warak enab), galettes or pretty much anything that feels appealing to the palate.
The sweets are also unbelievable, from baklava to kunefa (or “knafeh” as some like to say). I can’t speak for anyone else, but I always make it a point to eat something I’ve never tried before during Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.
And, because there are Muslims in every part of the world, it makes the foods we cook and share that much more diverse.
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