Practices by country: Myanmar, Burma, Philippines, China

In Myanmar (ASEAN nations officially refer to Myanmar/Burma exclusively as Myanmar), Eid ul-Fitr lasts for only one day for Burmese Muslims. They call this day Eid Nei’ (Nei’=day) or Eid Ka Lay (Ka Lay=small) or Shai Mai Eid, because Shai Mai or sayviah/sweet vermicelli served with fried cashews, coconut shreds, raisins with milk is the main Burmese Muslim traditional food cooked during the Burmese Muslim Eids.

During Ramadan, in the small towns and big villages with the significant Muslim populations, the Burmese Muslim youths organize the singing teams called Jago (in Urdu and Hindi) meanings, wakeup. Jago teams usually do not have any musical instruments except for some playing harmonica mouth organs. They go around at the early hours of the morning, to wake up the fellow Muslims for Sahur (pre-dawn meal) before fasting.

They take the tunes of popular Hundi movie songs and replaced with Burmese lyrics and words about Fasting, do and don’ts in Islam and about the benefits of Namaz or Salaat. These songs could be called Qawwali. The children and even the adults like to listen to them and sometimes invited them for food.

Sometimes those Jago group went around visiting the Muslim houses on the Eid day. Many people welcome them, treat with foods and donate for the team with Eidi or Duit Raya.

In small villages and towns with few Muslims, the neighbours wake up each other or sometimes paid someone to go round waking up the Muslims.

One of that Jago Wake up group from Mandalay's Chan Aye Thar Zan (East, Mid and West quarters), started in 1947, grow bigger to become a big organization for general broad welfare called Neikban Zaw Welfare Organization.

Although Eid ul-Fitr is not a public holiday in Myanmar, most employers have an understanding and are usually willing to give an unrecorded holiday to the Muslim staff. They even used to take time off during the office hour to visit their Muslim staff, usually accompanied by other non-Muslim staff under them.

As there is no single Islamic authority in Myanmar to give a decision, it is sometimes difficult to get an agreement about the sighting of the moon for the Eid or the start of Ramadan. So even in a small town or a village, Eid could be celebrated on different days. So it is difficult for the successive governments to declare a holiday on Eid ul-Fitr.

However, the Eid al-Adha "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is a public holiday. Burmese Muslims can celebrate it, as this annually falls on the 10th day of the month of Dhu al-Hijjah (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar. The festivities last for one day only in Myanmar. It is easy for the Myanmar governments to declare a holiday because sighting of the moon is ten day's earlier and the Eid al-Adha could be celebrate for three days. Usually they fixed the date following the Saudi authorities as Haj is more important.

Burmese Muslims recite the Takbir during the prayers at mosques, not loudly, all throughout the three day period of Eid.

Burmese Muslims are from Hanafi sect of Sunni Islam. So they perform Eid Salaah as Wajib (necessary and therefore to deliberately miss them is a sin) Namaz (Salaah) two raka??t with six extra Takbirs only.

During Eid, the traditional greeting is giving Salaam only or sometimes saying Eid Mubarak. They say Assalamualaikum from the mouth and put the right hand on the forehead as if giving a salute, but usually there is no shaking hands and rarely only includes a formal embrace.

Gifts or foods are frequently given to the elder relatives and even non-Muslim bosses and authorities, new clothes are traditionally meant for the family members and the workers or staff only, but Burmese Muslims elders used to give Eidi to all the children.

Children used to get more from their parents, quite a lot from the wealthy near relatives and friends but at least a token sum of small amount of money even from the strangers especially if they go around the neighborhood in groups purposely just to collect Eidi.

It is common for children and young people to go around giving "salaam" to parents, elder relatives and other elders in the neighborhood. During the Eid, Burmese Muslims used to ask forgiveness from elders and try to forgive and forget the misunderstandings amongst each other. Asking for forgiveness is usually done to the parents and elders.

Philippines

The Philippines, with a majority Christian population, has recognized Eid ul-Fitr as a regular holiday by virtue of Republic Act No. 9177 and signed on November 13, 2002. The law was enacted in deference to the Muslim-Filipino community and to promote peace among major religions in the Philippines. The first public holiday was set on December 6, 2002.

People's Republic of China

In the People's Republic of China, out of 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated by 10 ethnic groups that practice Islam, totaling 18 million according to official statistics. It is also a public holiday in China in certain regions, including two province prefecture level regions, Ningxia and Xinjiang. All residents in these areas are entitled of either a one-day or three-day holiday. Whereas outside the Muslim regions, only Muslims have a one-day holiday. In Xinjiang particularly, Eid ul-Fitr is even celebrated by Han Chinese population during which holiday supply such as mutton and beef is distributed to households as part of welfare scheme by government agencies, public and private institutions or businesses.

In the Yunnan province, Muslims are spread throughout the region. On Eid ul-Fitr, however, they travel to Sayyid 'Ajjal's grave, after their communal prayers. First there are readings from the Qur'an, then the tomb is cleaned (reminiscent of the historic annual Chinese Qingming festival in which people go their ancestors' graves, sweep and clean the area and then make food offerings).

Finally the accomplishments of the Sayyid 'Ajall are told. In conclusion, a special service is held to honor the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed during the Qing Dynasty, and the hundreds killed during the Cultural Revolution.