GOATS!

I started writing this post the evening I went to the hospital, so needless to say, I never finished it or published it :) I thought I'd post it anyway, even though the holiday is over.

The day after Diya was born (Nov 27) was a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice). In our country it's usually referred to as Baqra/Baqri/Bakr Eid (or the Goat Festival). Muslims that can afford to do so, will sacrifice their best animal. In our city/country, it's usually a goat (which is why it's typically called the Goat Festival). They sacrifice the animals in remembrance of the story of Abraham and God's command to sacrifice his son.

So, as you can imagine, they sell a lot of goats during this time!

This goat made me laugh!

This guy was selling his goats - He kept wanting his picture taken - he was funny :)

There are usually big areas that have lots of goats in the same place so that people have a lot of choices. The goat owners mark their goats so that there isn't any confusion as to which goats are theirs. Some are painted, some wear necklaces, etc...

This guy had his horns painted as a way of identification.

This guy was really proud of his huge goat and wanted his picture with it.

The goats at the bus stop made me laugh :)

This kid kept posing for my camera. He was a proud little shepherd boy :)

So for the first day of the holiday, the family will sacrifice the animal. That next morning, the men go to the mosque and have a prayer time. After this time then they distribute the meat. I've heard and read different things on this, but usually the family takes a 1/3 of the meat, they give 1/3 to their relatives and give the other 1/3 to the poor. Then they can cook and eat it.

The 2nd day of the holiday we were still in the hospital. The hospital we were in was right next to a mosque and a big field. For this holiday the mosque wasn't big enough for everyone, so they met in the field. It was really cool because we could see it from our hospital room!

There were TONS of people!!