Next: about 9 to 11 Mar 2027
Eid al-Fitr and kunafa
The feast at the end of Ramadan, when kunafa with melted Nabulsi cheese is cut from great round trays.
Cheeses for Eid al-Fitr and kunafa
Eid al-Fitr ends the month of fasting with prayers, new clothes, visits and a great deal of sweet food. In Palestine, Jordan and across the Levant the dessert most associated with the feast is kunafa, a tray of shredded pastry or semolina laid over a white cheese, baked until the cheese melts and soaked in syrup. Nabulsi cheese, the brined cheese of Nablus, is the classic filling, desalted in water first; akkawi is also used. Ka'ak and ma'amoul biscuits are baked in quantity, and morning visits are met with plates of cheese, olives and bread.
The cheeses
Also part of it, and being written: Jibneh Arabieh (The everyday white cheese of the Eid breakfast.).
Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Eid al-Fitr" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Akkawi: Paul Joseph, CC BY 2.0, source
- Nabulsi cheese: رائد عزمي حموده, CC BY-SA 3.0, source