Eid

You know Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, you know Halloween and Memorial Day and Mother's day and New Years, but do you recall the second most celebrated holiday of all?  

If you were born and raised in the United States then I would bet that you are not familiar with the Muslim holidays so I will give a little background (the best I can) before I explain what happens when Eid al-adha is celebrated in Dhaka.

There are two Eid holidays each year. One, Eid al-Fitr is celebrated the day Ramadan ends and it is a celebration of completing the month of fasting. Eid al-adha, which we just celebrated, is a celebration of sacrifice. There are not set days for these holidays, they follow the moon’s cycle so each year they occur about 16 days before the year prior.

Whether you are Christian, Jewish, or Muslim (or none of the above but have read the Old Testament), you should be familiar with this story, but for those of you who are not, I will offer a quick re-telling. (There are many versions so please forgive any errors as long as the point gets across.)

Abraham was a prophet of God. One day God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham did not want to sacrifice his son or go against God’s wishes. Abraham went to his son, Isaac, and told him what God had asked of him. Isaac who also believed strongly in God consented to God’s demand and offered himself as a sacrifice. Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God either: A) stopped Abraham and gave a lamb to replace instead, or, B) Abraham closed his eyes, sacrificed his son and when he opened his eyes, a ram had replaced Isaac (depending on which version you have read, the idea is the same). Eid al-adha is a celebration of Abrahams (or as Muslims know him, Ibrahim, PBUH) willingness to follow God’s demand and a celebration of God’s mercy.

The effects of the Eid holiday can be seen across the city as the day comes nearer. Like Christmas, lights are hung and people want to spend time with family. The newspapers had articles about the inflated transportation costs and showed people jumping over barbed wire fences onto the top of trains because they were already too full with people hanging off the sides. Everywhere you look there were goats and cows either tied to anything solid or roaming the streets. I was assured the roaming animal’s owners were close by, watching. The cattle market came to town with flocks of people going to buy their sacrificial animal. Schools and offices closed, the markets close on Eid and remain closed for the week meaning we had uninterrupted power for over a week due to less demand on the network. On Eid day, and for the week after, the city is relatively empty. The normally congested roads are mostly clear and even the beggars seem to be on holiday. 

A few days before Eid, Abu and his dad went to the cattle market to pick out our cow and goat. Each animal is sacrificed in someone’s name. A cow is good for seven people and a goat for one. We got the cow to cover our family and the goat for Sara. People from the cattle market helped get the animals to our home and for the next couple of days we had two cows in the back yard and about seven goats up on the roof of our building (the other cow and goat were another extended family member’s). We went up to the roof a few times and fed the goats leafs. I was a little afraid of Sara getting too attached to them, as it was, I wanted to sneak up in the night and free them myself. Not that it would do them any good.

Eid day starts with the men going to Morning Prayer followed by breakfast. After breakfast the sacrifice happens. My father in law sacrificed the cow and Abu did the goat. I could not bring myself to watch. Not knowing how best to handle the situation, I explained very little to Sara about what was happening. Once the butchering was well under way, I went down to the very crowded driveway to be a part of the day. The butchers were very efficient. Sara came down later and watched for a while too. I was very surprised by her. I thought, for sure, that she would end up a vegetarian after witnessing a driveway full of dead goat and cow parts. Sara seemed to fully understand that meat comes from animals and they have lives before they die and was ok with that. Only the smell seemed to bother her. Later in the day, she did ask me if the animals were hurt when they died. I did not want to lie so I said that they probably were hurt but they were killed as quickly as possible so the pain does not last a long time. After the hides were removed I could look at them like meat and from a biological stand point it is very interesting to see the ligaments, muscles, and everything else. I am sure that for hunters this is a very normal thing but I am not a hunter and this was very new to me.

The hides are given to people who sell to the tanners. Who knows, your next leather coat from Wilson’s could be made from our cow. The meat is split into thirds. The family keeps one third, the second is given to family and friends, and the third is given to the poor. None of the animal is wasted. The house staff is the first to get part of the meat that is donated to the poor then if there is any left it is given to the beggars who go door to door on Eid. The idea is that no one should be left out of the holiday, no matter how much money they have.

Just before lunch, Abu, Sara, and I went out for a drive to see the “empty” city and visit another relative. Large groups of people were standing outside the house gates where the sacrificing was happening, waiting for the donated share. Animal hides were being gathered and stacked on curbsides. There was a distinct, new smell to the city. Blood stained men dressed in all white were walking around with huge knives. The birds had flocked to the city waiting for their share too. Dhaka had become a different place over night. The difference between everyday and Eid day was quite striking.

We ate goat meat biryani and beef (and veggies and rice) for lunch and dinner. It was so delicious. I never remember eating such fresh meat before and the difference was clear. The house staff, maids, caretakers, and drivers all stayed through Eid day in order to collect their share of the meat and then left for their villages. I imagine Eid is celebrated a day late in their homes. Our regular maid had not been here since I arrived due to some family issues. She rode a train all night with her adult son, brother, and a woman to be our new maid to insure she was here by Eid and send meat home for her family. She and the new maid, Selma, have stayed here over the holiday. Begum decided that she missed her family too much and decided to quit. Our driver has not yet come back. For the last eleven days, we have been together as a family, visiting other family members, enjoying the time off, and eating red meat. All in all, it was a good holiday.