Eid Mubarak

Happy belated Eid Mubarak!

I apologize that I haven’t blogged in such a long time. Homework and midterm exams still exist while abroad!

This past month I celebrated Eid Mubarak, the holiday commemorating Abraham sacrificing a ram instead of his son, with my host-family. This four-day celebration is one of the most important religious holidays in the Islamic calendar. During the four days families come together to feast, pray and sacrifice a sheep. Yes, a sheep.

The week before the celebration my host-mom asked me every day if I was going to stay in town for the holiday and informed me about everything that was going to happen. Being that I am a vegetarian, I promised her that I would try eating the sheep and watch the event happen.

When the day finally arrived, my family went to the market and gathered a lot of food, cleaned the entire house and had the sheep hand delivered that day. After talking to other students their families bought their sheep days prior and complained of the smell and the noise. Another thing I noticed was that they do not run out of sheep like we do turkeys.

The holiday, in my opinion, is similar to Thanksgiving in America, yet the sacrificial aspect was very surreal. Even though our sheep was with us for a couple of hours he was really sweet, quiet and didn’t smell too bad. My host-family showed a lot of respect towards it by giving it food, water and kisses on the nose. It had its own area of the home so he was able to walk around, while tied up. Tightly.

The holiday was very interesting and I’m glad I was able to celebrate it while in a Muslim country. I’m going to spare the details of the sacrifice; needless to say, I’m sticking to my vegetarian diet from now on, nShaAllah (God Willing).