Islam literally means "submission" and the concept of completely obeying Allah's will is one of the most fundamental tenets of the Muslim faith, which is why Eid-ul-Adha is such an important and much-loved festival for the faithful.

In an act that symbolises Ibrahim's near sacrifice, Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice an animal (usually a goat in South Asia in order not to offend Hindus who believe cows are sacred) and distribute the meat in three equal parts among family, friends and the poor.

Muslim festivals fall at different times of the year because the Islamic calendar is based on the lunar cycle not the sun, and last year Eid-ul-Adha happened to coincide with New Year's Eve. I was lucky enough to be invited by the Turkish newspaper Vatan to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha in Istanbul, a veritable melting pot of Eastern and Western cultures.

Thanks to that bizarre meeting of the Gregorian and Islamic calendars (you can find a converter here) the day comprised a wonderful feast of contrasts that typified Turkey's schizophrenic character. At 5am the city's faithful piled into the numerous Ottoman mosques that lie along the Bosphorous for the extra prayer of the day. In the afternoon families took their cattle to enormous temporary slaughter houses and then partied the night away drinking copious amounts of Efes beer in Istanbul's equivalent to Trafalgar - Taksim Square.

This year Eid-ul-Adha falls just five days short of Christmas and serves as a potent reminder of the similarities and common held beliefs that all the world's religion hold dear.

Here are some photos I took during Eid-ul-Adha in Turkey last year:
As the sun rose over Istanbul last Eid...

The faithful headed to the Eyup Sultan mosque for special Eid prayers...

And then partied for the New Year in Taksim Square.