Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Ramadan fast, will begin Wednesday, according to Saudi Arabia, home to two of Islam’s holiest sites.
The timing of Eid al-Fitr, which translates to “the feast of breaking the fast,” is determined by the sighting of the crescent moon, in accordance with the Muslim lunar calendar. In Saudi Arabia, Eid al-Fitr is expected to be a four-day holiday.
In Indonesia, which at 220 million has one of the world’s largest Muslim populations, the celebration is called Lebaran. An estimated 193 million Indonesians will travel home to celebrate for an entire week with their families.
The mass exodus of Indonesians from the capital, Jakarta, usually creates hours of traffic jams, especially on the main island of Java.
But across the Muslim world, Ramadan observances this year were overshadowed by the war in Gaza, where Israel’s military response to the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 has killed at least 33,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. In that attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages that day.
As Eid begins, Gaza is on the brink of famine. Although more aid is starting to trickle into Gaza, displaced Palestinians seeking shelter say that the supplies are not enough for the increasingly dire conditions.
“There isn't enough food. I hadn't received a box in two months. Yesterday, we got a box that won't be enough for me or my kids and the other 18 people with us. If one person got a box every day, it wouldn't be enough," said Fayez Abdelhadi in a Gazan camp.
The World Health Organization has reported children dying of complications linked to malnutrition and starvation since last month and noted that the lack of medical supplies has led to other preventable deaths.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters and The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
