Animal Slaughtering Feast Holidays

Every year for the past 25 years of my life, I have spent this last full week of November preparing for Thanksgiving. And by 'preparing' I mean doing a little bit of schoolwork and then relaxing; my mother usually does the cooking. The lone exception, of course, was the year I lived in France, when I myself threw a Thanksgiving feast for over 40 exchange students. But every year, in some way or another, I have prepared for an ostensibly religious holiday that involves the slaughter of an animal.

This year is no different.

Of course, this year the animal in question is a sheep, and the ostensibly religious holiday is the Eid al Kabir, one of the most important holidays of the Muslim calendar.

The past few days, I have been asking my Moroccan co-workers, friends, and acquaintances what Eid al Kabir means to them. There are a few main themes that emerge.

The first is the reference to the Koranic story of Abraham and Ishmael. The story roughly follows the Biblical outline of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, except that the sons are switched. Abraham is commanded of God to offer up his son as a sacrifice, and Abraham follows God's command. But just as he is about to kill his son, an angel stops him and instead, an animal is provided for the sacrifice.

There are two main points to the story. The first is that God expects us to submit to his command come what may. We are to offer utter obedience to God whatever he may call us to do. The other is that animals sacrificed are pleasing to God in some sort of way. I have tried to push a little bit on this last point to understand in what way the sacrifice pleases God or soothes his wrath, but I haven't heard any great answers. This last point is important because for Christians, the sacrifice of Jesus is supposed to be a once for all sacrifice.

The other two themes that emerge from Moroccan's discussion of Eid al Kabir are those of family and social solidarity. Eid al Kabir is the one holiday when the entire family gathers together in the same place (although sometimes it also happens during Ramadan or Eid el Saghir that follows Ramadan). So, we might say, Eid al Kabir is a bit like Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one.

Also, since every family is required to kill a sheep and eat it (but not until after the king has killed his sheep), there is an opportunity for richer members of society to help poorer members of society. I have been told that many of the rich will buy an extra sheep (or even several) for the poorer families of Moroccan society in order for them to participate in this important holiday and feast.

I haven't been invited to Eid al Kabir just yet, but I'm hoping an invitation will be forthcoming. In the meantime, I'm planning a little get together with the other Americans before work on Thursday.