Blog 10: Ellie

The moment a soul

Separates from its meat sack

Drips onto your smile


This haiku is inspired by the sacrifice of the sheep in my experience during Eid Al Kabir, an important holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide. Some background about the sacrifice: According to the story behind the holiday, the prophet Abrahim was told by God to sacrifice his son Ismael as a test of loyalty, and when he had set up the sacrifice, the angel Gabriel was sent to tell him to sacrifice a nearby sheep instead of his son. Thus, during Eid Al Kabir, a sheep (or two) is sacrificed to honor this story/Abrahim’s devotion to his God, as well as to celebrate as a community with family and friends. We were told that many Morccans follow the ⅓ rule: keep ⅓ for yourself and your family, give ⅓ to friends and people you know, and give the remaining ⅓ away to strangers and those in need. This is an example of the “collectivist culture” which often comes up in our discussions, and which we see in our daily lives as well (sharing house shoes, food, etc.).

But back to the sheep… In many ways, we GSLers/Lakesiders/Seattleites/Americans are very similar to the members of our host community here: we enjoy games and sports, singing and dancing, eating bread (“khobz”) and drinking soda (“moonada”)... the Eid holiday is also very similar to major holidays in the US, particularly Christmas (family gathering with food and gifts) and Thanksgiving (traditional turkey meal, comparable to the sheep we eat during Eid). However, one difference is that between Thanksgiving/Christmas and Eid, us meat-eaters do not witness the process of our food from “cow” to “beef” (aka from alive and kicking to dead and not kicking anymore), but for Eid, we all saw that process– a process which is, in many ways, more humane than that of our meat industry: the sheep, with its legs tied up (literally alive and kicking against the restraints), had its throat slit, and soon after, its head laid down against the bloodstained concrete of the village road and it began the process of becoming the sheep version of “beef”.

Meanwhile, amidst the sheep blood pooling in the potholes, children were playing clapping games (similar to patty-cake) with us, families were taking photos in their new outfits, and everyone was smiling and laughing together– the deaths of the sheep were just a part of the holiday and their lives.

TLDR: “Normal” always needs the “ ”.






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