A Muslim child takes off his shoes as he was about to enter the Al-Khairiah Mosque in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City during last year’s celebration of Eid Al-Adha. CDN file PHOTO
At least 2,000 members of the Muslim communities in Cebu will convene at the Plaza Independencia in down Cebu City and in all the mosques today, August 21, to celebrate Eid al-Adha or the feast of sacrifice.
At 6 a.m., Muslim patriarchs are expected to arrive with their families and prepare for the congregation prayer that they will utter.
Each person will lay down their prayer mats facing east, the direction of Mecca in Saudi Arabia which they consider as their Holy Land.
After the prayer, a short program will be attended by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and North District Representative Raul Del Mar, said the city’s Office on Muslim Affairs and Indigenous Cultural Communities (OMAICC) staff Hassan Amboloto.
Osmeña has been accorded by the Muslim community in the city as their honorary sultan.
Amboloto said the city government has provided meals for the attendees of the program.
“Eid-al-Adha is literally a big feast for us. We are expecting more people to come compared to that of the eid-al-fitr last June which was attended by around 1,500 people,” Amboloto said.
In each of the eight accredited mosques in the city, the Muslims will slaughter their livestock offering which they will distribute to the other participants of the celebration.
“Our practice is that those who has something to offer will bring in the animal that they will slaughter at a certain area in the mosque as an offering. They will distribute that to the other Muslims. Those who will offer cannot take meat from their offering because that is a sacrifice,” Amboloto said.
“The concept is the more offerings you give, the more blessings that would be showered on you,” he added.
National Commission for Muslim Filipinos in the Visayas (NCMF-Visayas) director Malo Manongiring said that the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) donated two cows each for the offering in Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City.