Last Monday was the Muslim holiday Eid ul-Adha; this is the Muslim holiday of sacrifice, celebrated in honor of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son to show his loyalty to God. What this translates to in village is eating. A lot of eating sheep.
I started the day off at one of my colleague’s house. I got over there around 8:30, and hung out with his family for a while. Then everyone got all dressed up in their celebration garb: long, flowing outfits for both the men and women. Once we were all ready and pictures had been taken, we went over to the morning prayer session. Yup, I prayed with the Muslims. Prayers are normally held in the mosque, but because just about everyone in village shows up for special occasions, this morning the prayers were at the big soccer field across from the school. We walked over there, and my colleague set out the prayer shawl for the two of us, continuing one of many lines of people set up to pray facing Mecca in the East. We had arrived fairly early, so we sat for a while on our shawl, chatting with people and listening to the Arabic music. They had one megaphone set up, and music played for about an hour before the Imam arrived. Not surprisingly, he arrived in typical Burkinabe style- in the front seat of the ‘Blue Express’ village bush taxi. (That’s the newest addition to our bush taxi fleet…or it may just be newly painted.) I had to chuckle a bit when they opened the back door and 25 of the Imam’s closest friends piled out. The prayer itself lasted only about 15 mintues. The Imam spoke for a bit, all in Arabic, then we all kneeled to pray. I had been nervous that I’d feel out of place or not know what to do, but I didn’t feel any more neon than I do any other time in village, and I don’t think I screwed anything up religiously. I have to admit, it was very peaceful and meditative. I couldn’t help but thinking how wrong so many people are to be scared of the Islamic religion.
After the prayers were done the Imam was presented with a sheep, which he ceremonially slaughtered, as is tradition. I couldn’t see anything, so no video this time. Sorry Amy. Also during this time, the Koranic school boys roamed throughout the crowd asking for donations. These are usually kids whose parents can’t afford to send them to (the supposedly free) public schools, so they attend the Koranic schools at the mosque instead. They learn about Islam and the Koran, but have no one to provide food for them. So they ask for donations; they walk around with tomato paste cans and take what people offer, usually giving you a quick blessing and thank you in return. I think this was the “asking for money” portion of the prayer service, because many women with young children walked around the crowd and asked for money and or food as well. Also, a photographer roamed throughout the crowd taking photos for the mosque’s collection.
After prayers we went back to my colleague’s house where he killed not one, but two sheep. I hung out with his kids for awhile, teaching his youngest daughter (about 3 years old) English. Her older brothers have just started to learn English in school this year, and she is eager to learn as well. We also chased chickens away from the sheep carcasses and grilled the heads for eating the next day. After a couple of hours, my colleague brought out he first round- liver! He and I shared this while his wife continued to prepare the feast. A little later my other colleagues came over, and we all ate the rest of the sheep together. Good stuff. Then we went over to the school headmaster’s house…and ate again. This time sheep and POPCORN! Yup, apparently popcorn is one of the special holiday foods. Then we went over to another one of my colleagues houses. And ate yet again. Chicken this time. All three meals were delicious, and I could barely walk afterwards. Key word: barely. We then went to one of the village bars where all the non-Muslims and less strict Muslims continued the festivities. When I got home my neighbors shared with me some of their feast as well. Yum yum!
Lesson learned: holidays mean lots of food. Really, it’s kind of like Thanksgiving. In Arabic.
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