Getting L-Eide

Africa » Morocco » Meknès-Tafilalet » Errachidia
January 11th 2006

Published: January 16th 2006

L-Eide Adha is every vegetarian's favorite Islamic holiday. -Sarcastic Peace Corps Volunteer

L-Eide Adha is the most important holiday in the Islamic calandar, and a very big deal in Morocco. It is the reason we drove across Morocco to visit family. It is why we spent the week before baking cookies and making all sorts of mouthwatering little pastries with honey and peanuts and such. It is why I got to meet Hichem and Maryam's extended families and stay in the center of Errachidia at Hichem's mother's house. It is why I drank unnumerable glasses of tea and sat around for days making polite conversation with people I had never met before. It is why the roads were crowded with travelers, the trains raised their prices and buses were booked.

It is also why I watched a sheep be sacrificed on the roof.

L-Eide Adha translates literally to Feast of Slaughter and commemorates the willingness of Abraham (in the Bible or Koran or whatever monotheistic book you subscribe to) to sacrifice his son to prove his loyalty to God. Depending on which version of the story you believe in, somehow God provides a ram and the kid is saved as Abraham sacrifices the sheep in place of his son. I guess most of you already know this, but I thought I should refresh the memories of my athiest friends and those who know as much about religion as I do.

In the morning the guys went out to the country to get the sheep. Hichem has such a big family that they brought back two huge rams. Only male sheep are slaughtered for L-Eide (at least some part of this holiday makes sense to me). They were immediately locked in the bathroom of the upstairs apartment where Hichem's sister lives. In the afternoon the butcher arrived as Hichem's family is lucky enough to be able to have a professional do the majority of the work. I have talked to other volunteers who told me that the men in their families did the whole thing by themselves which I think is pretty impressive. I made myself watch the whole thing and it's not easy. Nevertheless, I guess if you watched it every year growing up and helped your parents for a few years you'd have to know.

I wanted to see it because it's an important part of the culture here. Every family saves, no matter how poor they are, to buy a sheep for L-Eide. I also think that it is important to know where food comes from. I knew this sheep was going to be on the table for the next few days and whether I eat it or not I wanted to know what happened to it.

It was actually much quicker than I thought. I had expected prayers and such, or at least some sort of ceremony before they cut the throat - and maybe there was one before I came upstairs to watch. They had already killed the first ram and I watched the beginnings of the butchering then felt sick and went back downstairs for a bit. When I got my nerve up again I climbed back up to the roof and watched the whole process for the second sheep.

Three men held it and one slit it's throat in one clean swipe, then they stood back as it bled out. That was by far more blood than I have ever seen. The tiled floor of the roof was covered and it just kept coming. Hichem manned the squeegee and pushed the pools towards the drain, but he couldn't keep up. They had buckets of water to wash off the roof, but the blood just kept coming. I didn't feel sick seeing the blood, but definately surprised and perhaps a bit in shock. The sheep started kicking and I asked one of the men if that was normal. He said yes, but that the sheep wasn't suffering because the brain was dead. Looking at the sheep thrashing it was hard to believe that. Then I remembered a rattlesnake I had beheaded once with a shovel and how it's body had writhed for hours afterwards. At the time I thought rattlesnakes just weren't evolved enough to know when they're dead, but know I think it much have just been muscles seizing, like the ram was now.

After the worst of the twitching they hung the sheep up by its hind feet and started the skinning and butchering process. This was the sickening part, though easier to watch than the actual slaughter. I got a through anatomy lesson and thought that this is probably what my friend Jaye is going through in some of her veterinary classes.

There was no way I could eat after seeing that. Maryam told me she never watches. Smart woman. I think it gave me a new idea for Ramadan though. If I ever get really hungry all I have to do is go watch a butcher at work for a bit and I will be ready to fast for days.

I managed to avoid the vast majority of the meat that was served, either by being busy playing with the kids or working in the kitchen or disappearing to another part of the house. Luckily there were so many people there my absences weren't always noted immediately. I did acquiesce to Zineb, Hichem's mother, and let her feed me a small piece of liver - a big treat here. I thought I might as well try it, since I have never eaten liver and had no idea what it's like. I took a tiny nibble then hid the rest under the tea tray while Zineb wasn't looking. I made an excuse to go talk to Maryam and told her I had tried liver and needed something to mask the taste - fast. She fed me some little peanut and honey sweets that did the trick perfectly.

Another important part or L-Eide is visiting relatives. And drinking tea. In the afternoon we made the tour of four different relatives houses where we were urged to drink more and more tea while being presented with plates piled high with more kinds of cookies and little sweet pastries than I have ever seen. They are all home made and exquisite. The only problem is that since I had been feeling guilty for not eating the meat I had tried to make up for it by eating more than my share of the sweets and praising the cook profusely. Add on top of that the next four relatives houses - before we even went to see Maryam's family. I suppose I have no reason to complain, at least it I wasn't presented with platters of liver and heart. Nevertheless, by the end of the evening my heart was racing and my teeth hurt.

Overall, L-Eide was interesting but I was happy when it was over - and so happy to get to spend the night with Maryam at her parents' house that night. They served several salads and chicken for dinner which is probably sacriligious on L-Eide, but I was very thankful. Their house was much calmer and I had fun talking to Maryam's sisters and her father, who speaks practically perfect English. He used to be in the military and worked for some time in the US, so his accent is very American. Unfortunately he was very tired that night and not in the mood for much conversation. Since he retired he opened a corner store and works long hours there. I get the impression that he loves to work.

It was so nice to spend some time with Maryam's family, I hadn't seen much of them during the week. I love Hichem's family, but Mama Zineb's house is definately full and there are always quite q few grandchildren running around wanting me to play with them. Sometimes I felt like a new toy dragged in to play with during vacation. Of course, the tradition here is that once a woman marries she becomes part of the husband's family. Maryam did what I would call an extraorinate amount of work in Mama Zineb's house, and hardly got to see her family at all. When we spent the night (only one) with her family Hichem didn't stay with us. I know it's normal here, but I was still surprised how little time Maryam was expected to see her family.

Even if it wasn't my favorite holiday, at least it was a good excuse to travel with Maryam and see a lot more of the country.

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