The Festival of Sacrifice

Earlier this month was another religious holiday for members of the dominant faith. This holiday is called the Eid El Adha, and is centered around the story of Abraham sacrificing Ishmael (they believe it was Ishmael, not Issac). The story remains quite similar to the account of Abraham and Isaac with a ram being substituted for Ishmael’s life just before the time of sacrifice. The following is what I experienced during the Eid El Adha earlier this month. I must warn you, though, that some of these descriptions are somewhat graphic. If the thought of blood or animal slaughter makes you uneasy, then I would suggest you go read one of my blogs about how much babies suck.

The days leading up to the Eid El Adha were quite unusual. No matter where I was in Cairo, the sound of baa-ing sheep, moo-ing cows and… umm, whining goats could be heard in the streets. This is because every family that is a part of the dominant faith purchases a goat, lamb, or a cow to sacrifice on the first day of the Eid in commemoration of Abraham’s sacrifice. My bike happened to be broken during this time (what a surprise), so I walked through the streets on my way to and from the office, and I was able to observe some of the slaughtering that happened during the day. Once again, the atmosphere of this day was like nothing I had ever experienced before. As I walked along my regular route, every so often I would meet someone coming from the opposite direction who’s clothes were splattered with blood. Some people would even have the blood of animals sprayed on their faces as well! I recall one man in particular who caught my eye during that walk. He wore coveralls that were once white, but were now festooned with blood. It looked as though he had just come from the front lines of a bloody battle. Soon I arrived at the front line myself. Before me there were large red stains on many parts of the streets, as well as the sidewalks and even some of the walls of shops. As I walked on, I passed a small stream of blood trickling down the side of the road. I followed the stream with my eyes and saw the source of it lying on the sidewalk ahead of me. A family stood around and watched the cow struggle for its last few seconds of life before it gave up the inevitable battle and fell silent. Further ahead I saw a shop-front littered with pieces of meat, intestines, and other random animal parts. The bloody killing of animals and the celebration of the participants makes for quite an interesting combination of events during this festival. After the animals are sacrificed, families will keep 1/3 of the meat to eat themselves. Then they will give 1/3 of the meat to friends and family, and the last third of the meat to the poor. This festival is a holiday from school and work and it lasts for three days. The slaughtering takes place on the first day. I have a few (very few) pictures of this festival, but am not going to post them here because they are quite graphic.