Muslims around the world yesterday began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive holiday marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, with millions under strict stay-at-home orders and many fearing renewed COVID-19 outbreaks.
The three-day holiday is usually a time of travel, family gatherings and lavish daytime feasts after weeks of dawn-to-dusk fasting.
However, this year many can only celebrate at home with immediate family, with virus fears dampening the holiday spirit.
Photo: Reuters
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, has reported more than 22,200 infections and 1,372 fatalities, the most in Southeast Asia.
Lockdown orders intended to contain the pandemic mean there will be no congregational prayers at mosques or even open fields, no family reunions and no relatives bearing gifts for children.
Some countries, including Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, have imposed round-the-clock holiday curfews.
In conservative Aceh, Indonesia’s only province enforcing Shariah, public Eid prayers can still be performed at mosques and fields, but without shaking hands and with shortened sermons.
In the rest of Indonesia, authorities have extended virus restrictions to Thursday next week, suspending communal gatherings and banning private vehicles from leaving the capital, Jakarta.
In Muslim-majority Malaysia, businesses have mostly reopened after weeks of lockdown.
However, mass gatherings are still banned and people are not allowed to travel back to their hometowns for the holiday. Police have turned away more than 5,000 vehicles and have warned of strict penalties for those who try to sneak home.
The virus has also led to the cancelation of the “open house” tradition, where Muslims invite family and friends to their homes for a feast.
Mosques have reopened, but are limited to small congregations of up to 30 people. Malaysia has reported 7,245 infections and 115 deaths.
In Pakistan, Eid is being celebrated in the shadow of the coronavirus and in the wake of a passenger plane crash near Karachi on Friday that killed 97 people.
Pakistan has reported more than 54,600 cases and 1,133 deaths.
More than 1,000 worshipers prayed shoulder-to-shoulder in an open field in Karachi yesterday, with only a few of them wearing masks.
Iran, which is battling the deadliest outbreak in the Middle East, allowed communal prayers at some mosques, but canceled the annual mass Eid prayers in Tehran led by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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