A Day in the Life ... Eid Al Adha

Eid Al-Adha is the Muslim religious festival where a sheep or goat is sacrificed in memory of the story of Abraham's obedience when God asked him to sacrifice his son and God's subsequent provision of a ram to sacrifice instead of his son. This year, Eid fell on 24^th September which was the date of the first sighting of the new moon. It is a very social time which involves lots of visits to family and friends.

This sheep wouldn't look so happy if he knew what was coming

Visitors

The day before Eid, some local friends came to visit. They noticed Paul's guitar on its stand and asked if he would play something. We sang some Arabic songs which we know, and also spent time discussing the significance of the story of Abraham.

God stopping Abraham from sacrificing his son

Sick kids

Unfortunately, Kira fell sick with fever and vomiting for four days and meant that we could not visit all the people we would have liked to visit over Eid. The day after Eid, Paul visited the family who had visited us and Kate tried her best to visit some of the ladies who live in the apartments above us, although some of them were out visiting their family and friends. Just as Kira was recovering, Jenson fell sick with a fever, cough and cold.

Jordanians bake millions of date biscuits for Eid which are then given to all their Eid visitors.

Despite this, we still managed to visit another family, the day before the father of the family had to fly back to Saudi Arabia, where he works as a mechanic. Kate has made friends with his wife and this was our first opportunity to meet her husband. He explained to us that he has no choice but to work in Saudi Arabia in order to provide for his family and support his children through university. This is the situation for many people in Jordan, where work opportunities can be hard to find.

Our friends appreciated the fact that we visited them during Eid and will probably make sure they come and visit us in return during our Christmas holiday.