Muslim people across China celebrated the end of Ramadan, their month of fasting, on Sunday.

In Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 1.91 million Muslims took part in the festival of Eid ul-Fitr at local mosques.

Around 1,000 Muslims, wearing white caps, gathered around 10 AM at the famous Nanguan Mosque in the region's capital Yinchuan to attend.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim lunar calendar. It is believed to be the time when the Holy Qur'an was given to people to guide them in following Islam. It is time for Muslims to fast and contemplate their faith, spending less time on everyday concerns and more on life's bigger questions.

The fast requires that they do not eat or drink during daylight hours, whilst smoking and sex are also forbidden. At the end of the day the fast is broken with prayer and a meal called iftar. Following iftar it is customary to visit family and friends before resuming the fast the next morning.

In the city of Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, a large group of believers went to the Dongguan Mosque, the province's biggest, to mark the end of their Ramadan.

Ma Xiande got up at seven in the morning. After getting dressed into his best clothes, he rushed to the mosque with his son. He joined the crowd kneeling in the courtyard, and greeted his fellow worshippers in Arabic.

As the imam announced the start of the ceremony at half past nine, they all began their prayers in the mosque.

A table of delicious food with strong western Chinese flavors had been prepared at Ma's home. He said all his family members, from his two-year-old grandniece to his 88-year-old mother, got together to enjoy the first meal after the long fast. To him, the religious ceremony is also a family ritual.

Ren Qixing, chairman of the Ningxia Regional Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, sent his congratulations on behalf of the CPPCC committee and government of the autonomous region.

He said remarkable economic development and social progress in Ningxia are attributable to the joint efforts of the region's Muslim Hui and Han, China's majority ethnicity.

Major officials of the region joined in the fast breaking ceremonies in many districts and townships of Yinchuan, extending their greetings to local Muslims.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn November 15, 2004)