xero7 : a place like no other

Eid al-Fitr, the day on which the Ramadan fast ends and the subsequent feasting begins. The Arabic term (`iid al-fiTr عيد الفطر) means "Festival of Fast-breaking"; the original meaning of the root fTr seems to be "cleave, cut open", from which it acquired the senses of "form, make" on the one hand and (in a metaphor somewhat similar to the English one) "break fast" on the other. In North Africa, it is more generally known as El Eid Es Sghir (l`id SSghiR العيد الصغير), "the small festival" (as opposed to Eid al-Adha, the "big festival").

source: http://lughat.blogspot.com/2005/11/eid-mubarak.html