I thought it was the usual "call to prayer" from the nearby mosque that woke me, but it was going on longer, and sounded better than the usual recording. As I listened, I remembered that it was the Muslim Holy Day, the Eid Al-Adha. Being curious as to what might be happening on this special morning, I dressed quickly and went for a walk towards the mosque.
The sound of the chanting continued for quite some time - a repetition of the phrase "Allah'u'Abha, meaning "God, the All-Glorious", and the phrase "Allah-u-Akbar", "God the most Great". There was other script chanted in between repetitions as well. Both of these phrases are familiar to me because they are used in the Arabic Writings of the Baha'i Faith. Maybe that was the reason the chanting had such a strong impact on me, drawing me nearer and nearer to the mosque. I really felt like the words were calling to my heart!
Unfortunately it appeared to be a "men's only" time at the mosque as there were no other women in sight; so as the chanting came to an end I returned home.
The holy day that was being celebrated was in recognition of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, but in the end God asked him to sacrifice a sheep instead. So on the holy day, people here actually butcher a sheep and cook all the meat, eating it over the course of a couple of days. Of course, some areas of the city are more traditional than our neighborhood. So far as I could tell, only one family in our apartment butchered their own sheep - down in the basement where the storage units and parking are. They obviously transported the poor thing in the elevator because it had that smell of wet wool all day! I have to admit, though, that the wet wool smell was much better than the smell of butchering that wafted up the elevator shaft as the day wore on!
Once the butchering began, the father spent a lot of time trying to get a fire started. This, after 3 days of near-constant rain! I finally took a bunch of cardboard boxes down to help him get it going. The purpose of the fire was to burn the sheep's head clean. He very appreciative of the fire materials!
The grocery stores set up sheep pens about a week before the holy day and people bought their live sheep for about $6.00/kg! In some areas of town people could be seen transporting their sheep by moped/scooter, truck, or just carrying them. One person told me of seeing a sheep in the back seat of the car, while the kids road in the open trunk! If you think about it, the kids know better than to jump out of the trunk, but sheep don't! And they are not at all safety conscious when it comes to kids in cars.
Because the holy days were on Monday and Tuesday, we had a 4-day weekend! Then after working Wednesday and Thursday, we had Veteran's day off! Next week is also a 4-day week because of the Muslim New Year on Friday, and then the week after that has Thanksgiving! I could get used to this kind of a work schedule!
The sound of the chanting continued for quite some time - a repetition of the phrase "Allah'u'Abha, meaning "God, the All-Glorious", and the phrase "Allah-u-Akbar", "God the most Great". There was other script chanted in between repetitions as well. Both of these phrases are familiar to me because they are used in the Arabic Writings of the Baha'i Faith. Maybe that was the reason the chanting had such a strong impact on me, drawing me nearer and nearer to the mosque. I really felt like the words were calling to my heart!
Unfortunately it appeared to be a "men's only" time at the mosque as there were no other women in sight; so as the chanting came to an end I returned home.
The holy day that was being celebrated was in recognition of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, but in the end God asked him to sacrifice a sheep instead. So on the holy day, people here actually butcher a sheep and cook all the meat, eating it over the course of a couple of days. Of course, some areas of the city are more traditional than our neighborhood. So far as I could tell, only one family in our apartment butchered their own sheep - down in the basement where the storage units and parking are. They obviously transported the poor thing in the elevator because it had that smell of wet wool all day! I have to admit, though, that the wet wool smell was much better than the smell of butchering that wafted up the elevator shaft as the day wore on!
 |
| The sheep head is by his knee, the skin (with wool) is in the grass |
Once the butchering began, the father spent a lot of time trying to get a fire started. This, after 3 days of near-constant rain! I finally took a bunch of cardboard boxes down to help him get it going. The purpose of the fire was to burn the sheep's head clean. He very appreciative of the fire materials!
The grocery stores set up sheep pens about a week before the holy day and people bought their live sheep for about $6.00/kg! In some areas of town people could be seen transporting their sheep by moped/scooter, truck, or just carrying them. One person told me of seeing a sheep in the back seat of the car, while the kids road in the open trunk! If you think about it, the kids know better than to jump out of the trunk, but sheep don't! And they are not at all safety conscious when it comes to kids in cars.
Because the holy days were on Monday and Tuesday, we had a 4-day weekend! Then after working Wednesday and Thursday, we had Veteran's day off! Next week is also a 4-day week because of the Muslim New Year on Friday, and then the week after that has Thanksgiving! I could get used to this kind of a work schedule!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.