What is Eid al-Fitr and how do Muslims celebrate the Islamic holiday?

CAIRO (AP) — Muslims around the world will soon bid farewell to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and start celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Eid is marked with congregational prayers and festivities that typically include family visits, gatherings and new clothes.

This year, Eid will come just after the Israel-Hamas war crosses the somber milestone of having stretched on for half a year. During Ramadan, as Muslims around the world savored the traditions of their diverse communities, advocacy, prayers and charity for Palestinians in Gaza were high on the minds of many.

It’s an Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the month when devout Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is a time of increased worship, charity, and good deeds.

Eid al-Fitr means the feast, or festival, of breaking the fast.

Islam follows a lunar calendar and so Ramadan and Eid cycle through the seasons. This year, the first day of Eid al-Fitr is expected to be on or around April 10; the exact date may vary among countries and Muslim communities.

Eid Mubarak, or Blessed Eid, and Happy Eid.

In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, many people embark on an exodus to their hometowns to celebrate the holiday with loved ones. This year, an estimated 193.6 million travelers are expected to crisscross the vast archipelago for Eid in a homecoming tradition known locally as “mudik.”

In the past two years of Eid celebrations, Indonesians crammed into trains, ferries, buses and onto motorcycles as they poured out of major cities amid severe traffic congestion to return to their villages to celebrate the holiday with families. Flights were overbooked and anxious relatives, weighed down with boxes of gifts, formed long lines at bus and train stations for the journeys.

Before the holiday, popular markets teem with shoppers buying clothes, shoes, cookies and sweets.

In Malaysia, Muslims also have a homecoming tradition for Eid. The first day usually begins with a morning prayer in the mosque, seeking forgiveness from family and friends, and visiting loved ones’ graves.

There’s an “open house” spirit that sees friends and families trading visits to celebrate Eid and enjoy traditional delicacies such as ketupat, rice cooked in a palm leaf pouch, and rendang, a meat dish stewed in spices and braised in coconut milk.

Older Muslims give money in green packets to children and guests who visit their homes.

In Egypt, families partake in Eid prayers amid a festive atmosphere. Many visit relatives, friends or neighbors and some travel to vacation spots. Children, usually wearing new Eid outfits, receive traditional cash gifts known as “eidiya.”

Making or buying Eid cookies dusted with powdered sugar is another fixture of marking the holiday in the country.

In the United States, where Muslims make up an ethnically and racially diverse minority, many come together for Eid prayers and for festivals featuring fun activities for children and families. These often include such things as face painting and balloon twisting.

Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE - People ride a motorbike as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr feast, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, July 17, 2015. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

FILE - Women and children gather before Eid al-Fitr prayers, Friday, April 21, 2023, at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Muslims offer sweets to police officers on duty after offering prayers on Eid al-Fitr in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, May 3, 2022. Muslims are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation. (AP Photo/Bikas Das, File)

FILE - People buy sweets at a shop in preparation for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr celebrations, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday, May 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad, File)

FILE - Muslims girls display their hands painted with traditional henna to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad, File)

FILE - Shiites observe the crescent moon to determine the start of the tenth Islamic month of Shawwal, which marks the end of a month-long fasting of Ramadan and the beginning of the Eid al-Fitr festival in Najaf, Iraq, Thursday, April 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)

FILE - People wait for the buses that will take them to their hometowns at Kalideres bus terminal, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, a week before the Eid-al Fitr holiday. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

FILE - Muslims gather for Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan on a street in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

FILE - Men and children attend a prayer service at Masjid Al-Farooq for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Friday, June 15, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

FILE - A woman and child peer out their car window as bubbles are blown into their car by volunteers from the Muslim Community Center as part of an Eid al-Fitr ceremony celebrating the end of Ramadan and a month of fasting in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, Sunday, May 24, 2020, in New York. Because of the need for social distancing due to coronavirus, the celebration was a drive-by celebration in which sweets and toys were handed out. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

FILE - Imam Souleimane Konaté, left, leads worshippers in Eid al-Fitr prayer in New York on Sunday, June 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Noble Jr., File)

FILE - Shiites attend Eid al-Fitr prayers at Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, Iraq, Saturday, April 22, 2023, to mark the end of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil, File)

FILE - Muslims hug and greet each other after offering Eid al-Fitr prayers at the Jama Masjid in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, June 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)

FILE - Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan outside al-Seddik mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

FILE - Muslims try to catch balloons distributed after Eid al-Fitr prayers, marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan outside al-Seddik mosque in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

FILE - Youths light firecrackers and flares as they celebrate the end of the fasting month of Ramadan on a street in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, June 4, 2019. Islam follows a lunar calendar and so Ramadan and Eid cycle through the seasons. In 2024, the first day of Eid al-Fitr is expected to be on or around April 10; the exact date may vary among countries and Muslim communities. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.

Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.

The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.

A person with direct knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing said the council’s political accord had been violated by the unexpected move and that some council members are considering other choices as potential prime minister.

The council on Tuesday was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But two hours and a profuse apology later, one council member said that not only a council president had been chosen, but a prime minister as well. Murmurs rippled through the room.

The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a council member with voting powers, denounced in a statement late Tuesday what it called a “complot” hatched by four council members against the Haitian people “in the middle of the night.”

“The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the Montana Accord said.

Haitian politics have long been characterized by secretive dealings, but many worry the country cannot afford further political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.

“People change parties (like) they’re changing their shirts,” said François Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College in New York and former Haitian politician.

He spoke during an online webinar on Tuesday evening.

Like others, he said he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a former senator and presidential candidate, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.

“Interestingly, Moïse, of all the politicians there, is the one calling the shots,” Pierre-Louis said.

Moïse, however, does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is among the four council members who support Bélizaire.

The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the council’s new president.

They could not be immediately reached for comment.

A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, “Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council.”

The move prompted the Fanmi Lavalas party to issue a statement Wednesday calling it a “masquerade” and “conspiracy” to guarantee that PHTK “thugs and their allies retain power…and continue the tradition of corruption.”

“The Lavalas Family strongly rejects the betrayal scandal that occurred on April 30,” the party said.

Fils represents the January 30 political group, which is made up of parties including PHTK, whose members include former President Michel Martelly and slain President Jovenel Moïse. Meanwhile, Augustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the Dec. 21 agreement, which is associated with f ormer Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.

Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when gangs in Haiti launched coordinated attacks starting Feb. 29.

They have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence continues unabated in certain part of Port-au-Prince, including the area around the National Palace.

Haitians are demanding that security be a top priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and Cabinet, as well as prepare for eventual general elections.

But some Haitians are wary of the council and the decisions it’s taking.

Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, noted that most of the council members are longtime politicians: “Their past is not really positive.”

“I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t believe it will,” he said. “They don’t really love the country. Who’s dying right now? It’s Haitians like me.”

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noted that some of the parties represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.

“It’s a contradiction,” he said. “Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope that they change their ways, but they do not.”

Raising the same criticism is Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”

He noted in a recent essay that the council is “dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before - bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises - these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons.”

More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the U.N.

In addition, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month given the relentless gang violence.

Street vendors move their booth after gunshots broke out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Police patrol near the National Palace amid the sound of gunshots in the distance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

CORRECTS DAY - People run for cover as shots ring out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Edgard Leblanc Fils speaks after the transitional council named him president of the council in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Transitional council member Frisnel Joseph speaks during a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

IDENTIFIES TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS - Transitional Council members, from left to right; Fritz Alphonse Jean, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Frinel Joseph, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Regine Abraham, Emmanuel Vertilaire, Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Fils was chosen as the president of the panel. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Edgard Leblanc Fils, left, and Smith Augustin prepare to pose for a group photo with the transitional council after it named Fils as its president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)