Happy Eid al Adha to Everyone.
This Eid al Adha was special because it was our first official Eid as a married couple for my husband and I.
This year I paid for the sheep – it cost 1800 DH and I named it promptly upon sight – Baaah Marley due to his long beautiful hair – yes the song from Hair ran through my head the minute I saw Baah Marley. Poor guy knew what was going on – and he was really pissed off about how he was transported and man handled into the back courtyard of my in laws house. It could have been worse – he could have been stuffed in the truck of a car like I would say 50% of Moroccan sheep are before Eid or tied to the roof of a vehicle. I know your thinking – What?! Yes. I didn’t believe it till I saw it either. He was happier the next morning but then I wasn’t happy that I knew he was first up to be slaughtered.
I would say his death was quick and he never saw the knife coming – both which are more to comfort myself than poor dead Baaah Marley.
I had to take breaks between taking photographs as I got light headed at the sight of the sheep blood or maybe it was just the lack of breakfast till after the sheep had been killed and skinned?
My friend and fellow PCV decided to join my family this Eid and took HD video of the whole slaughter of Baah Marley – he is drop boxing it to me – so when I get to a better a place in Morocco – or return to the US – I get to show people the whole experience in HD should they have the stomach to handle it.
We then had breakfast of cookies, tea, bread, cheese, honey, olives and olive oil.
My mother in law, sister in law and cousin in law all took over preparing the “offal,” which includes such delicacies as brain, heart, lungs, liver, stomach etc.
I the first year of my service – bravely – tried a bite of each and decided none of them were for me. My father in law is a very kind man and once I explained that I didn’t enjoy the taste and my stomach didn’t like the offal – I was ever since given sheep meat instead of the offal. THANK ALLAH. 😀
Once our sheep was strung up and drying – my husband, myself and my fellow PCV – Matt decided a BBQ was in order…
Grilling meat is universal to every culture and boy did Baah Marley taste good.
While the meat was grilling a small kabob fight started…
The other sheep had yet to be slaughtered yet – as you can see in the background of the kabob fight photo. I told Matt I felt bad for the other sheep – as he must have smelt Baah Marley cooking. Matt laughed and told the sheep that he was next. I was also thrilled my husband put the charcoal grill outside of the house as the smoke from the grill quickly engulfs the house and has everyone coughing with eyes streaming from the smoke – yet every year Moroccans across Morocco decide to grill indoors. I haven’t figured the logic out on that one yet.
On an interesting side note – no female sheep are slaughtered during Eid – its always the male sheep that get the ax so to speak. Kind of like a praying mantus but with sheep and no sex.
My cousin in law and other family when they decided to grill – started grilling indoors – which promptly led to me shoving the grill out the back door with my foot as the house was consumed by smoke. I suggested grilling outside and the response was that it was “sunny outside.”
I haven’t figured out when Moroccan’s enjoy the outdoors yet because I always am hearing about how its to cold, hot, sunny etc to go outdoors. Are there any Moroccan outdoors enthusiasts other than my husband? Or is he the random outlier to all the Moroccans in Morocco?
By the end of the afternoon both sheep were dead – and everyone was in a sheep meat coma.
My husband had to go to work – he got to go in late because everyone in all of Morocco even the King – had a sheep to kill except for the poor who could not afford a sheep, goat or cow. The King of Morocco kills his sheep on live TV – I don’t know about you – but I don’t think the sheep feels all that honored to be the King’s Sheep “the #1 sheep,” that day. I sure wouldn’t want to die on live TV if I have a choice.
My mother and her spouse sent Omar and I a lovely Eid E Card on this occasion and I made sure to warn people once I uploaded the photos on FB that – they were NC-17 aka X rated sheep killing photos in the bunch.
In the end although I was just happy to have shared this mile stone with my husband and to fortunate enough to have been able to meet this obligation in the Deen.
American Muslimahs Musings 