Eid al Adha

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF EVENTS THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED GRAPHIC. IF YOU ARE REALLY YOUNG, FAINT OF HEART, OR HAVE AN INORDINATE AMOUNT OF EMPATHY FOR ANIMALS, GO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

So Eid al Adha actually happened almost a month ago, but I've been really busy/mildly lazy since then, so its a bit late. Eid al Adha is one of the two major Muslim holidays (the other is Eid al Fitr after Ramadan) and I got the opportunity to experience it this year because my host family, like 88% of all Indonesians, is Muslim. Preparation for the holiday begins the day before, with Muslims fasting from dawn until dusk and then again from the prayer in the early morning until after the solat (prayer) on the day of the actual holiday. In addition, during the entire night before Eid al Adha, people pray at the mosque and broadcast the call to prayer over the loudspeakers. There is a mosque about a five minutes walk from my house and I could hear the sound of the prayers every time I woke up during that night. In the morning a prayer/sermon is held in a flat, open space (not a mosque) and everyone gets dressed in the Muslim prayer clothing: long pants, a long sleeved white shirt with a flat collar and a skull cap or fez for the men and a long skirt, poncho and head scarf for the women. The solat in our neighborhood was held at the park at the entrance of our complex so we walked there with many of our neighbors and I got to watch them at prayer. Afterwards we broke the fast with the traditional meal of ketupat (rice cake), opor ayam (chicken with a yellow sauce), lidah (cow tongue) and rendang (spicy beef flavored with coconut).

A photo of the morning solat on Eid al Adha

THIS IS WHERE IT ACTUALLY GETS GRAPHIC, TURN BACK NOW.

Eid al Adha is the day of sacrifice, where animals are sacrificed and the meat is given to the poor. Our family bought a goat the night before the Eid and named it Kuping, which means ears, because it had really long ears. After the solat and breakfast, we took Kuping to the mosque where he was sacrificed along with many other goats and a few cows. Sacrificing a goat is fairly simple, the goat is flipped over on to its side and held there while its throat is cut. It all happens quickly and requires only one or two people. Sacrificing a cow is a bit more of a process. Cows are bigger, much harder to get on their sides and have legs that are dangerous if not properly secured, so it takes five or six people to push it into position, tie its head to a post, knock it over, tie up its legs and hold it in place before its throat is cut. After the sacrifice, the animal is drained and the blood is washed into a pit or the sewer, depending on the facilities available, then butchered on site and given out to the poor and the hungry. After this, the day is spent visiting family and friends and eating lots of food, like a normal holiday in the US.

Kuping the goat. Notice the ears.

An additional note, today marks exactly two months since I left home to embark on this amazing adventure. These past two months have been absolutely amazing, and life really seems to be starting to click for me here. I'm picking up more of the language and the culture and am incredibly happy here. If anyone has any specific questions about what I'm doing here or things you would like to see in a future blog post, feel free to leave a comment (I've heard you need to use a google+ account) or send me an email or Facebook message. Dadah!