Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Madawi al-Rasheed, A History of 

Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 

2002); Nadav Safran, Saudi Arabia: The Ceaseless Quest 

for Security (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University 

Press, 1985).

feasting

Feasting is a celebratory cultural activity that 

involves the sharing of quantities of food and 

drink by families, social groups and classes, and 

entire communities. It is known to many soci-

eties—tribal, agricultural, and industrial—and 

religions. As Caroline Walker Bynum has noted, 

feasting and 

Fasting

 often link members of com-

munities to each other and to the rhythms of 

nature, with its times of plenty and times of fam-

ine and drought (Bynum, 34). Periods of feasting 

and fasting tend to complement each other, even 

if they do not always coincide with the seasonal 

patterns of nature.

There are two major times of feasting recog-

nized in Islam. One is i

d

 

al

-a

dha

, the Feast of 

Sacrifice, a three- to four-day holiday that com-

memorates the sacrifice of a

braham

 and the con-

clusion of the 

haJJ

 rites in m

ecca

. The other is i

d

al

-F

itr

, the Breakfast Feast, a three- to four-day 

holiday that marks the end of the month-long 

r

amadan

 fast. These 

holidays

 are celebrated by 

Muslims around the world; they involve visiting 

among families, neighbors, and friends and the 

preparation of savory foods and desserts. Families 

often schedule engagements and weddings dur-

ing Id holidays in order to keep overall expenses 

down, because people have more free time to 

attend, and because 

baraka

 (divine blessing) is 

believed to be especially strong at such times of 

the year. Families also visit cemeteries on these 

days to donate food to the poor on behalf of the 

souls of deceased loved ones. The idea of feast-

ing, moreover, has been incorporated into Islamic 

visions of the 

aFterliFe

. In 

paradise

, the blessed 

are rewarded with heavenly dishes and beverages, 

which are served endlessly in luxurious settings.

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