Muslims across the county have been celebrating the festival of Eid.

The second Eid festival of the year began today (Wednesday) and is set to last over the next three days, but most people will be celebrating today and on Thursday.

In the morning Muslims headed to their local mosques to take part in morning Eid prayers. Later, many visit the local cemetery to say prayers for loved ones.

The morning prayers were staggered throughout the morning with the earliest beginning at 5.15am and running through at different locations until 9.30am.

An Eid in the park event in Blackburn’s Corporation Park which attracts hundreds was unfortunately cancelled due to the wet weather.

As a back up, worshippers headed to the Darussalam Education Centre in Whalley New Road.

Here, much like many of the smaller mosques in Blackburn and across East Lancashire, worshippers could be seen praying outside of the mosques due to small capacity.

Provisions were also made for women at some mosques.

Lancashire Telegraph:

Friends and family line-up at the Masjid-e-Noor on Saunders Road in Blackburn after morning prayers

Eid-Al-Adha takes places at the end of the annual Hajj period.

The annual Hajj attracted more than 1.8 million pilgrims from all over the world who amassed in and around Makkah.

Authorities said they expected this year to approach pre-Covid levels of more than two million visitors.

The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to.