Eid al-fitr or the fast breaking festivity
Structure of the phrase
"Eid al-fitr", "Eid ul-fitr" or "Id al fitr" are deferent spellings of the Arabic phrase ( عید الفطر). The phrase is in the Arabic genitive structure in which the first noun belongs to the second one, in a particular way. Keeping this in mind, if we give the phrase an English structure, it will be "the fitr eid". So, the Arabic phrase "Eid al-fitr" is equal to the English phrase "the fitr eid".
Meaning of the phrase
In terms of its meaning, the phrase means "the festivity of braking fast" or "the fast breaking festivity". It is because the word "eid" means "festivity" and the word "fitr" means "breaking fast". The prefix "al-" or "l-" (in the "ul-" spelling) in Arabic, functions as a definite article, like "the", in English. The phrase's structure is also a linguistic element. In English, the meaning of this form is expressed by the possessive "-'s" or "of" which expresses the genitive relationship between the two nouns. It means that in English, there are two possibilities to express the meaning of this phrase. One is the genitive phrase "the fast breaking festivity" and the other one is the "of" phrase "the festivity of breaking fast"
Read more
Eid, Oxford Dictionaries Online
Eid thesaurus, MACMILLAN Dictinary
Eid, Collins English Dictionary