Happy Eid-al-Adha! Eid is also spelled Idd as well and admittedly this post will arrive a day after the celebrations have drawn to a close. In the Muslim world, this is Christmas. It's three days long so people take the extra two days off and make it a great long holiday. The non-Muslim Pakistanis making up 3%-5% of the population-Christians, Hindus etc.-take their holiday at Christmas later in the month. December has mixed productivity.Eid-al-Adha is a lunar based religious holiday commemorating Ibrahim's sacrifice of Ishmael to Allah. In Christendom we recognize this as Abraham's sacrifice of Issac stemming from a primary doctrinal different. The holiday also marks the end of the Hajj where any Muslim who possibly can goes to Mecca. In real life, Eid-al-Alha is giant three day long celebration involving, food, family, gifts, and more food. Each family must slaughter a goat and give a third to the poor and Tuesday there was the smell of butchery on the winds of Islamabad and we saw goats in all shapes and forms around the city. We thought about having our own version of Eid...Pizza Hut...but all the stores were closed...so we studied for finals. It's the last week of the fall semester and my American university didn't recogize Eid as a holiday (they didn't give me a Thanksgiving break either, I was ticked on both counts).
This was my first Eid and while I applaud tradition, it reminded why I'm deciding to turn vegetarian. Not that I disapprove of meat, I simply disliked seeing all the goat parts. Goats are cute.
2 comments:
Goats ARE cute, Grace. SAAAAD. Actually, I haven't been eating cows, and I feel great about it. I think cows are quite cute themselves.
I agree completely! Goats are cute, as are most animals that people decide to eat... which is why I've been a veg. for 2 years :-)
Props to ya girl!!
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