Eid al-Fitr, 19th August 2012

The Islamic holiday of Eid-ul-Fitr commences on Sunday 19th August 2012, sparking one of the biggest celebrations of the Islamic calender. To mark the occasion, here's an explanation of some of the traditions and rituals practised throughout the festival.

The festival stretches across the Muslim world, as can be seen here, with the Muslim women of Chennai, India, offering their own Eid al-Fitr prayers.

Muslims therefore not only partake in Eid to celebrate the end of Rammadan and the end of fasting, but also to thank Allah for the strength given to them by Allah to ensure self-control during the previous month.

Here, thousands of Egyptian Muslims gather to perform a group prayer on the first morning of of Eid al-Fitr at the Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque in Cairo.

However, Muslims will often rely on an 'official' sighting of the new moon, rather than scanning the sky themselves. Here, a group of clerics and astronomers assigned by Iran's Supreme Leader attempt to find the new moon and announced the beginning of Eid.

One of the festival's customs is to break the previous month's fasting with a small, sweet breakfast, normally with a date fruit, before attending a special Eid Prayer known as salaat.

Eid includes special services both in Mosques and out in the open, such as processions in streets, as well as a celebratory meal. The meal is consumed during the daytime, and will be the first time Muslims will have eaten during the daylight hours for a month.

Symbolically, Eid also represents a time for forgiveness and the forgetting of past animosities for Muslims, as well as chance for the Islamic world to show unity.