How many days are celebrated as Eid?

Question

Depending on where you live, your city/country/region may celebrate Eid as one day (North America in general), or three days (India/Pakistan and much of the Arab world).

As far as I know, there is no specific legislated number of days that 'Eid should be in shari'ah. However, I put that question out there: is there any legislation on how many days Eid should be? (Either or both Eids).

I know that there's a hadith that talks about public holidays in Islam, and it mentions that we only have "the two Eids." But it doesn't mention a number of days.

Answer 1

Eid by definition is one day. Take this hadith for example (emphasis mine):

The Prophet said (on the day of Idal-Adha), "The first thing we will do on this day of ours, is to offer the (`Id) prayer

The celebration however for Eid al-Adha is three additional days, called the days of tashreeq:

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade fasting on these days: “Do not fast on these days, for they are the days of eating, drinking and remembering Allaah.” Narrated by Ahmad, 10286

Technically, this Eid is called Yaum an-Nahr - the day before is Yaum al-'Arafah and the three days after are called Ayyam at-Tashreeq.

There are other ahadith in which the three days are also called "Eid"s by the Prophet (saws) but that may be more linguistic than technical because in more authentic ahadith he also said (saws) that there are only two Eids for the Muslim.

Answer 2

In this hadeeth, the prophet (pbuh) stated that islamic yearly festivals (eid) are two days. Fitr (After ramadan) and Adha (At Hajj time).

حديث أنس رضي الله عنه قال: "قدم رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم المدينة ولهم يومان يلعبون فيهما فقال: "ما هذان اليومان؟" قالوا: كنا نلعب فيهما في الجاهلية فقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: "إن الله قد أبدلكم بهما خيراً منهما يوم الأضحى ويوم الفطر" رواه أحمد وأبو داود والنسائي والحاكم وصححه ابن تيمية والألباني.

Anas may Allah be pleased with him said: The Messenger of Allah peace be upon him came to AlMadina (and they had two festival days) in which he said: "What are these two days?" They said: We were celebrating in them before Islam. He (pbuh) said: "God substitued them with better days: the day of Fitr and Adha" narrated by Ahmad, Abu Dawood and Nasa'y.

The length of Adha eid is 4 days (the 4 days after day of arafa); because these are the days in which you are allowed to offer you sacrifice. Also you are not allowed to fast in these days.

The length of Fitr eid is the first day after ramadan -only 1 day- (not 3 as people think). It is not allowed to fast in this day.

Regarding legalisations, It depends on the country laws. For example, in Egypt the official holidays are 2 in Fitr and 3 in Adha.

Answer 3

alhamdulillah wasolatu wasalam 'ala rosulillah. In fact, apart from that verse, there is an autenthic hadith relating to the emergence of Dajjal that 1 day will be like 1 year (totaling more than 8,000 hours). However what is used to determine a day in Islam is sunrise and sunset, and its night is between sunset and sunrise not 24 hours. So, Eidl fitr is stil 1st of shawwal only. Allahu a'lam