Eid Al Adha 2010

Eid Mubarak Everyone!
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I've spent all day tidying Majlis One (women) and Majlis Two (men) of our humble family home. Crystal glasses, dates, halwa, cookies, candies, etc. I also had the TV on all day hoping to see a couple of my close relatives in Mecca among the millions of pilgrims this year (no such luck!). I really do envy them sometimes. Some of my colleagues try to go to Mecca for Hajj or Omrah (the smaller pilgrimige that also has to be performed once in your life) every year! I've only been on the Omrah once and I got bad food poisoning so it wasn't the most beautiful of memories. I suppose I'll wait until I find a husband before going on the Hajj. That 'could' take forever. :)

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Tomorrow morning after sunrise the men will head to the mosque for Eid prayers then most men will immediately slaughter the Eid 'sacrifice'. My family is slaughtering a goat this year even though usually we slaughter a cow with my uncle's family, but they've gone to Thailand for the Eid (!) and we're left with a goat. The poor thing is tied up in the family farm and seem oblivious to the fact that tomorrow morning it will no longer be.

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I was out shopping with my teenage cousins a couple of days ago (bad bad bad idea - traffic was ... ugh), and for some reason we started talking about the slaughtering and the meaning of Eid. I was SHOCKED to discover that NONE OF THEM knew the history behind Eid al Adha. I'm still shocked. They had no idea why we celebrate and the religious significance. They just thought the purpose of Eid was to celebrate the end of Hajj. Whatever happened to Islamic education in schools?? I studied all this back in middle school, but it seems nowdays that the Islamic Studies books are shrinking every year. Soon, they may be eliminated from the national curriculum (why?!)

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Eid Al Adha (Festival of Sacrifice, or Greater Eid) is celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead. So, each Muslim family slaughters an animal on the morning of Eid to commemorate this. The meat is divided into three equal parts to be distributed to others. The family retains one third of the share, another is given to relatives, and the third to the poor and needy. Make sense?

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In Salalah most families freeze some of the meat and also make the famous 'Majeen' (too good to describe). One of my favorite dishes in the world is majeen meat with white rice and ghee. Sinful I know, but it's really really good.

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Off to do more cleaning and figure out my dress for tomorrow. You'll be glad to know I bought a new 'Second Head' for Eid. It has feathers and beads on it.

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What are you doing for Eid? Anyone going to send me some Shiwa from the North? (the meat cooked undergound - divine)