New York's famed Empire State Building will be lit green for the first time this year to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. “This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah,” a statement said. The holiday of Eid al-Fitr is expected to be celebrated in New York on Friday, depending on when the new moon is sighted. The city's tallest skyscraper will remain green until Sunday. Built in the early 1930s, the 443-meter-tall building was first lit up with colored lighting in 1976, when red, white and blue lights were used to mark the American Bicentennial. Since then it is regularly lit to celebrate a variety of holidays, including religious ones. An estimated seven million Muslims live in the United States.
