The day begins with the communal Eid prayer and a sermon, prayed in the morning in mosques, open grounds and, in the vast crowds of the pilgrimage, at Mina near Mecca; Eid al-Adha's timing is fixed to the climax of the Hajj, so that pilgrims and the whole Muslim world keep it together, the pilgrims completing the rites of the standing at Arafah the day before and the stoning at Mina. Those who are able perform the qurbani or udhiyah, the ritual sacrifice of a sheep, goat, cow or camel, following rules of humane slaughter.
The meat is traditionally divided into three portions: one for the household, one for relatives and friends, and one for the poor, so that the feast is also an act of large-scale charity, and in many countries organised distribution reaches those who rarely eat meat. Muslims dress in their best, visit family, exchange the greeting Eid Mubarak, and give to the needy. The combination, a re-enactment of Ibrahim's submission joined to a systematic sharing of food with the poor, gives the feast its double character as the year's most solemn commemoration and one of its most concrete acts of generosity.