How many ways can you bring home a live sheep from the market for Aid el Kabir?

(From here on down, it's like Where's Waldo? We've had so much fun spotting sheep!)

This is my favorite!

The festival of Aid el Kabir (in just a few days) is one the oldest and most important religious festivals of the Islamic world. The celebration is about Ishmael - not Isaac as we read about. The Muslims believe that Ishmael was the son of Abraham and his "wife" Haagar. (while Judeo-Christian belief is that Haagar was Sarah's servant and was offered to Abraham by Sarah as a way of possibly having the promised child - before Sarah became pregnant herself) He was the chosen son and the one taken to the mountain for proposed sacrifice as commanded and then rescued when G-d provided the ram instead. Slightly different version of events - that leads to Abraham being the father of the nation and of Mecca itself through Ishmael - who becomes a prophet.

A little confusing to realize there are 2 versions with 2 very different implications. In the Judeo Christian version G-d tells Abraham that his son Ishmael (whom he leaves in the desert with Haagar at G-d's command...oddly also part of Muslim tradition, although they are not clear as to why G-d commanded this any more than anyone is clear why G-d commanded the sacrifice bit for either son...whichever one you believe it was) will also be the father of a great nation...much as Isaac will be.

This festival has an interesting correlation to Passover in a way...although this is about obedience and Passover has more to do with G-d's protection and promise (the previous 3 paragraphs are from my friend Alisa who corrected me on my facts... thank you!).

As Aid El Kabir is a festival of sacrifice each Muslim household that can afford to do so will sacrifice an animal - usually a sheep. The head of the household will turn the animal’s head toward Mecca before slitting its throat. None of the animal is wasted as all parts will be turned into brochettes and eaten, except a few small pieces of the heart and liver which the women of the household cast into the corners of each room in order to keep away evil. Special prayers are said on the day of the festival and the holiday is a time for the giving gifts and visiting friends and family. Islamic law also says that some of the meat of the sacrifice must be shared with the poor. The financial burden that this must put on families is overwhelming. $500 for every family, and it is an 'obligation' to do it. It's not an option to not buy a sheep. Also, the sheep has to be alive to ritually sacrifice it (after the king via television slaughters his) so all week we've been seeing live goats on motorbikes (tied up, obviously), little old veiled ladies carrying sheep on their shoulders, and horse-drawn carriages delivering sheep to households around Morocco. Bella and Eilidh have been very excited about these sites but we are a little afraid of their response to the slaughter on Tuesday (the night before we go back to Spain).

The wonderful thing about the sheep sacrifice is the care that people take towards the animal. Animal activists often criticize this holiday for being brutal, but the Koran dictates that the knife must be sharp (to kill quickly), the arteries must be severed as quickly as possible, and that the animal must be faced towards Mecca when the prayer and sacrifice occurs. Also, people use every part of the animal. On the first night people eat the organs and work on butchering the animal. On the 2nd night people all over the Muslim world barbeque meat for their own use and they put aside meat in their freezer and give 25% of the meat to poor families. Also on day 2 people come around to all the houses and buy the hide to make leather goods out of. We talked with the girls about what honors the life of an animal more- this or buying a de-plucked turkey at the grocery store that is not even identifiable to kids as an animal. And the background to this entire process we must remember is scripture based- the old testament as seen by the Muslim Prophet Muhammed said that the lesson Muslims must take away from the story of Abraham and Isaac is that God is greater than we can ever imagine and that people must submit to his will. Within Judaism there is much debate regarding Abraham and Isaac, but to be honest I doubt that this exists within Islam because their entire religion is based on submission to God, and for a father to be able to even consider sacrificing a son to me is beyond comprehension, but also a testament to religious devotion.

I should have known better than to be worried about what the girls would think- on the day of the slaughter we saw a sheep tied up outside a home. The girls went up to it and oohed and aahed and looked in its big beautiful eyes. As we were leaving Bella said, “How funny. A sheep outside someone’s house.” (uh-oh, I thought) “Well, tonight it will be part of the party dinner.” Silence and big eyes then she answered cheerfully, “Well, I’m glad I got a picture of it before they ate it then.” That’s my girl!