Eid Al Adha is the "Eid of the Sacrifice" when Muslims remember Abraham going to sacrifice his son and God providing a ram to sacrifice instead. On the 3rd day of these holidays, friends visit each other for short Eid visits. I began by visiting my neighbour who welcomed me into the guest lounge (usually we sit in the kitchen or family lounge!) and offered me "qahwa sada" strong black coffee in a little cup and "mahmool" special date biscuits. I had taken along some chocolates as a gift and her 4 young children were quick to appear and start eating them but she kept shooing them out of the guest lounge! We chatted about family, Eid and the story of Abraham's sacrifice and after about 20 minutes I gave my thanks and departed.
qahwa sada
After lunch I telephoned Kira's old school friend's mum and asked if it would be a good time to visit. She told me to come and so immediately I took the children in the car over to her house. The children enjoyed playing whilst we ate more mahmool cookies again in the special guest lounge. The mum asked if I would prefer the qahwa sada or tea, so this time I broke with tradition and asked for tea. Her sister and family then arrived so we all drank tea together and chatted for about half an hour. The short visits enable everyone to be able to see each other! So we said our goodbyes, but the children were disappointed to only play for a short time.
mahmool cookies
Arriving unannounced
As we left I telephoned another friend who lived nearby but she was also out visiting so we didn't have a chance to see her. We continued back towards our house and I decided to pop in and see my old language helper and her family. I tried telephoning but there was no answer so I just arrived anyway!
Her sister opened the door and although she was slightly surprised, she seemed very pleased to see me and again welcomed me into the guest lounge. Juice was offered followed by more qahwa sada and mahmool cookies. We had a great time of talking and I discovered that my language helper's engagement had been broken off which was why I had found it difficult to contact her over the past month. She had shut herself away possibly because of the shame associated with breaking off an engagement. I was about to leave when her parents arrived home from visiting relatives, so I stayed to talk with the mother for a while. Then I was ushered into the family lounge since her father was expecting a male guest so they were to use the guest lounge! Interestingly when her mother brought coffee for the men, she knocked on the guest lounge door, her husband took the tray from her and returned to the lounge so that his wife would not need to serve the men.
a sheep is killed during Eid
Have some of our sheep!
When I finally left, I was presented with meat from the Eid sacrifice. Usually a family will sacrifice a sheep and then keep a third of the meat, give a third to friends and relatives and give a third to the poor.
The following day we did a few more Eid visits as a family!
