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Xinjiang Muslims embrace Corban Festival
Muslims in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region began celebrating on Thursday as one of the biggest religious festivals in China gets underway. The three-day Corban Festival, also known as Eid al-Adha or feast of the sacrifice, centers around a large feast as Muslims slaughter lambs to share with the whole family. "The Corban Festival is one of the most important festivals for Muslims," said Ekeram, a 31-year-old Uygur civil servant living in Kashgar." Just like the Spring Festival for the Han people." Xinjiang has a population of more than 21 million, with more than half of Muslims from 10 ethnic groups, such as Uygur, Kirgiz, Kazak and Uzbek. PUBLIC HOLIDAY This year's Festival has been eagerly anticipated by Uygurs and other ethnic groups as it lines up with Mid-Autumn Day, a traditional Chinese festival for family reunion. In an effort to allow longer celebrations of both holidays, the provincial government declared a five-day national holiday for all nationalities in the region. People used to begin preparing for the festival two weeks in advance, cleaning their houses, preparing ethnic foods, and purchasing new clothes for the celebration. Those living away from family rush home to celebrate. Ekeram said he used to buy a lamb days before the festival and slaughter it the first morning of the Corban Festival, boiling it and feasting with his family. It's a time when Uygurs make rounds visiting parents and other elders in the family after the morning prayers. "Every one is warmly welcomed and cordially treated during the festival," Ekeram said. CELEBRATE WITH A HAN FRIEND Nurbiyam, 39, a Uygur woman in Kashgar, said all the men in her family will go to attend the morning prayer service in the Id Kah Mosque, which is the largest mosque in the region. The mosque attracted about 100,000 muslims from across Xinjiang during the festival last year. Nurbiyam and her husband have seen a rush of business at their traditional Uygur clothing store as the festival approached, she said. Their partner Zhou Weiqing, a Han man who helps produce the clothes in South China's Guangzhou province, sent 3,000 yuan ($470) as a gift for her children during this year's festival. "I have invited him to come to Kashgar and celebrate the Corban Festival with us," Nurbiyam said. TOURIST PARTICIPATION At Chen Liang's youth hostel, the beds are overflowing with travellers for the festival and tourists visiting old town. "The hostel has become increasingly crowded and some people have even had to camp in the yard," he said. In the festive spirit, Chen said he'll buy a lamb to boil and share with guests. "Last year, 55 people staying in the hostel shared a lamb during the Corban Festival," he said. Jan Hofen, 27, is among those celebrating the festival in Kashgar's old town. "I heard about terror attacks in the area, but I still chose to come. I find Kashgar safe and my friends to visit," he said. Muslims From Other Ethnic Minorities Besides Uygurs, other ethnic minorities such as Hui, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tajik and Kirgiz also celebrate the Corban Festival. Ma Xueyan, a Hui minority, was purchasing goods for the festival in a Muslim supermarket in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. "Nuts, cakes, jam, and tea are necessities for the festival," Ma said. Sulayman, 35, from the Kirgiz ethnic group, said in his hometown in Kirgiz autonomous prefecture of Kizilsu, people participate in games like horse racing, lamb grabbing and sing folk songs to celebrate the festival. Though Sulayman has got used to the city life, he still keeps the tradition of slaughtering a lamb on the first day of the festival. "We cannot slaughter lambs in our modern residential community but there are some live-stock markets in Urumqi offering a place for us to do it," Sulayman said. "You can find that people drive flocks of lambs to sell on the street or in some residential areas, which you can rarely see in other big cities in the country," he said.
Chinese celebrate Mid-Autumn Day with new take on mooncake
draws near, Chinese people are observing the holiday with new twists on the traditional mooncake. In southwest China's Sichuan Province, the museum of the pre-historic Sanxingdui Ruins made mooncakes in the shape of its iconic bronze masks. Some of the 3,000 cakes are the traditional yellow color, while the rest are green and tea-flavored. The Sanxingdui Ruins in Guanghan City, some 40 kilometers from the provincial capital of Chengdu, are believed to be remnants of the Shu Kingdom that suddenly disappeared some 3,000 years ago. Listed among China's top 10 archaeological findings of the 20th century, the ruins offer strong evidence of the diverse origins of Chinese civilization. According to Lin Wei who works at the museum, people were calling to ask how to get their hands on the distinctive mooncakes. "Someone even asked, jokingly, if the mooncakes taste like bronze," said Lin. Lin told Xinhua that the mooncakes are not for sale. "Some of the mooncakes will be given for free to users who have followed our Sina Weibo or WeChat accounts," he said. Less than ten days after the mooncakes debuted, the museum's Weibo followers had grown by a third to reach 344,763. Lin is happy with the results. "We didn't expect so many people to like them," Lin said. "We will make more next year for sale." "Our stereotype of a museum is a place for serious learning," Lin said. "Now we want to change that and convey our culture through creative products." In north China's Hebei Province, local civil servants have come up with their own novel mooncake design. On Wednesday, 35 children in the Gexin community of Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei, learned to make mooncakes bearing the "socialist core values," a set of ideals advocated by the Communist Party of China. "Traditionally we inscribe characters on the mooncakes to describe its filling or express blessings," said Shen Jie, a community civil servant. "Then we thought, why not tell children the core values this way to get them interested?" They ordered a mould with the characters for the core values, including "prosperity and democracy," "civility and harmony" and "freedom and equality." Children were told stories about Mid-Autumn Day and asked to share their own understanding of socialist core values. "My child is also a student," said Wu Shouwei, who works in a local pastry shop and taught the children how to make the mooncakes. "The activity is interesting and meaningful." These mooncakes are also not for sale. "They will be given to elderly people who have no family and those in nursing homes," Shen said. Even in the remote Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, people are clamoring for unusual variations on the traditional pastry. "We made mooncakes with glutinous nut cake as the filling," said Adil Memetura. He and his company made more than 50,000 of the mooncakes, which have completely sold out. When Adil was young, his father sold glutinous nut cake, or qiegao, for a living. Following in his father's footsteps, Adil founded a company in Changsha in central China's Hunan Province after his college graduation to produce the popular Xinjiang snack. On Monday, Muslims in China began celebrating Corban Festival, also known as Eid al-Adha or the feast of the sacrifice, a three-day event centered around a large feast of lamb. "Corban is close to Mid-Autumn Festival this year," Adil said. "We gave out mooncakes to Muslims outside a mosque in Changsha for free, so they could taste the flavor of their hometown." Mid-Autumn Day, the 15th day of the eighth month on China's lunar calendar, falls on Thursday this year. The festival has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years to mark the harvest during the autumn full moon. It is also an occasion for family gatherings featuring lanterns, solving riddles and, of course, mooncakes. "We created a big qiegao mooncake that is 718 grams," Adil said. "It is our wish that families can sit around it and share the cake, enjoying their moment together."
Chinese Muslims observe 4-day feast
Reception was held to mark festival; believers gather for prayer sessions Muslims across China celebrated one of Islam's biggest holidays on Monday as they gathered to pray and sacrifice halal domestic animals in accordance with religious dietary laws. The Eid al-Adha Festival, or the Feast of Sacrifice, is one of the most significant dates on the calendar for Muslims. It is marked by wearing new clothes, taking part in morning prayers and sacrificing sheep or cattle. The Islamic Association of China held a reception in Beijing on Monday evening, inviting State dignitaries, including Vice-Premier Liu Yandong; Sun Chunlan, head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee; and envoys from some Islamic countries. Chen Guangyuan, president of the association, addressed the celebration by extending his greetings to Muslims globally. In Beijing, where authorities estimate that there are at least 260,000 Muslim residents, thousands of believers gathered at the Niujie Mosque to perform morning prayers on Monday. "It is also a time of showing loyalty to your country and Allah, and showing filial piety to your parents," said Su Quanren, a 42-year-old Hui resident in Beijing. Su, a migrant worker from Lanzhou, Gansu province, said he would have been celebrating the festival with his family if he were in Lanzhou. "Even though I am alone here in Beijing, I take part in the prayers together with my friends," he said. The Niujie area, a neighborhood largely inhabited by Hui people in the capital's Xicheng district, has Beijing's largest concentration of Muslims. Nur Syafika Mohd Rasid, a 19-year-old overseas student from Malaysia who is studying Mandarin at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said she decided to come to the mosque for the Eid al-Adha, as it is one of the oldest mosques in Beijing and she can meet other Muslims there for the celebration. "It unites us. We meet different people, different cultures and different languages, of course. That is interesting." The festival is also celebrated widely in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Mamat Xerip, a 78-year-old resident of Urumqi, said all male adult Muslims would take part in the morning prayer sessions at the mosques. "The festival is also an occasion to remember and mourn your dead relatives," he said. Eid al-Adha is an important four-day religious holiday observed by Muslims. It marks the end of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. China has more than 20 million Muslims, who mainly live in the western provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan, and in the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions. Contact the writers at xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn
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1 Thousands of worshippers in Beijing gathered inside a mosque in Niu street, the traditional Muslim neighborhood of the city.
2 Muslims gather to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan at Dongguan Mosque in Xining, capital of Northwest China's Qinghai province, July 17, 2015.
3 The Qingjing Mosque in Quanzhou is one of the oldest Arabic-style mosques in China.