Eid, continued

Okay - so this blog post will be a work-in-progress.  I am publishing it before it is done.  We still have a couple of videos to download. And, as the week goes on, I am sure we will have more pictures to take and more things to talk about.  And, at the end of the week we depart for a day in Cairo to see the pyramids, then on to Sweden - so who knows when I will actually finish this whole blog and there are interesting things going on that I want you all to see and learn about before they are weeks old  - so I figure it is just easier if I publish now and edit this post with new information as it comes in....

 So, the evening of September 3, around 9pm, Gary and I heard a children laughing and hollering in the streets.  Not just a few children, like on an average evening where the kids are playing soccer in the streets- this sounded like up to a hundred children. These children then all started chanting in unison.  Not knowing Arabic, we had no idea what they were saying, but Gary and I rushed to our balcony to see what all the fuss was about.  Down on the street below, we saw two people leading bulls and many children chasing after them.  The two men stopped their bulls and started to holler at the kids.  Again, we had no idea what they were saying, but suddenly all of the children were lined up on both sides of the road and were no longer chanting.  Now the men with the bulls took off at a run, and all of the children chased afterwards, laughing and screaming.  About this time is when I finally got my phone out and started to video-tape, just as they went around the corner.  The kids came back later, chasing a different bull, so Gary got his phone out this time.  Unfortunately, they never did the chant again.  I tried to ask one of the workers today what the chant was about.  He wasn't sure (and frankly, his English wasn't the best so I wasn't sure if he understood my question or if I was interpreting his answer correctly) - but he told me that they were chanting about God being so good and to thank him for this animal.


Again, on Sunday, August 4, the same thing happened.

Another thing we have learned is that not everyone butchers their own lamb - many hire someone else to do it.  It also appears as though you can do this ahead of time as every butcher shop is very busy right now and has many carcasses hanging out in front.  To purchase a sheep, you first ask the price, then they take you to the pens and you pick out the sheep that you want.  You can tell them how many kilos you are interested in - and they will get you a bigger or smaller sheep, depending on what you tell them. They then bring the animal out of the pen and weigh it by hanging it up in a harness and using a simple counter-balance weight system. Once the weight is known, you can then figure out the cost of the sheep.  You then give them a down-payment, they tag the ear with a number, and they write you out a receipt.  They also tell you to take a picture of the tag.  You set an appointment to have it butchered.

We are told that this guy is less than one year old.

Counter-weight balance that is used to weigh the lamb 

 You are to be there when the animal is butchered.  They then place the meat in 1 kilo bags. The person who purchased the animal is then required to deliver it personally to the poor.  It is also part of the holiday to eat some of the meat yourself.

I am hoping that Gary will get a picture of the stacks of small grills that are for sale everywhere as well.  We think (from a youtube video that was shared with us) that they make shish-kabobs and cook the meat directly on the coals.

Got the grill picture! Small grills cost 14 pounds ($1.40 USD, approx)

Lamb kabob on open coals

Also, the atmosphere seems a bit like Christmas - with the sales going on all over the mall!  I wanted to try on a pair of pants and the line for the dressing room wound way around the store. I probably had 30-40 people in front of me. Luckily I had an English-speaking Egyptian who teaches math at the British school right ahead of me, so we were able to have a bit of a conversation while we waited!

9/7/16  So, our brilliant church secretary, Lisa Myers, who studied to be a minister herself, gave me some fascinating information regarding my previous post relating the Bible story about Abraham and his "first-born son" .  Here is what she told me:

The Torah (and Bible) state that the son was Isaac.  The Quran doesn’t name the son, but most Muslims believe that it was Ishmael, Abraham’s son born by Sarah’s Egyptian slave Hagar maybe about 14 years before Isaac was born.   Muslims point to the command to Abraham to take his only son and sacrifice him.  Had this occurred after Isaac was born, Abraham would have had two sons, although Abraham does send Hagar and Ishmael away into the wilderness presumably to be forever lost because Sarah wanted to get rid of any potential threat to her son Isaac inheriting the first-born birthright.  So perhaps Abraham did feel that the only son he had left was Isaac.  Hmmm.

Another interesting piece of information --  Isaac is the father of the Israelite people, and Muslims believe that Ishmael is the father of some Arab tribes.  A number of Muslims even assert that Muhammed was a descendant of Ishmael.  Could be.  The rivalry of the htrying talf-brothers’ mothers is still being played out in the friction between the Israelites and Arabs.

It seems the government is trying to crack down on butchering animals on the streets.  I have heard reports that they will be fining people up to $50,000 EGP for doing so, but no one believes it will happen because frankly, there just aren't that many police around.

Did I mention that all animals that are sacrificed on Eid are male and under 1 year old?

Not everyone likes this holiday - and I am not just talking about the animals!  First of all, so many animals are sacrificed at once that the streets run red with blood.  The sacrifice is done in the traditional way, which means that they use a knife to cut through windpipe and jugular, then the animal bleeds out and suffocates.   Even for some Egyptians, this is too much.  Others don't like it because they see it as people trying to prove their "holiness" to each other.  Just like some Christians only show up for church on Christmas and Easter, and only give to the poor when others can see them doing so - some Muslims are no different!  Of course, there are those who are faithful, and continue to give to the poor all year around, even when no one else can see them doing so - but, because the tradition is to sacrifice and butcher the animal you purchased in the streets - those who have a tendency to "show off" about what a holy and good person they are - will buy the biggest and best animal they can afford so that everyone will know what they have done.  They will then go back to their homes, continue to be selfish, not care about others, and never give another penny until the next year.  For those who do not believe in God, or see religion as being hypocritical - their views are confirmed in their mind when people of faith fall short of what they profess to believe and practice.


Okay, so remember to keep checking back on this post because it will keep growing and changing .....

And, please leave comments about anything you might want me to write about in the future