Eid ul-Fitr in Lakshadweep

The defining civic and religious occasion of the union territory, and the day the whole archipelago keeps at once.

It marks the end of the month-long Ramadan fast. In a territory that is almost entirely Muslim, this is not one festival among many — it is the year's principal day.

Congregational prayer at dawn in the island mosques, then house-to-house visiting and communal eating. Families cook kilanji, a paper-thin coconut-milk crepe, and mus kavaab, a tuna curry — the food of an island economy built on coconut and fish.

Dawn congregational prayer, then visiting and feasting through the day.

The completion of the fast is marked communally rather than privately.

Islam reached these islands by sea and has shaped their calendar for centuries; the Eids are the fixed points of the year here in a way they are not in most of India.