In two days Muslims celebrate one of their two most important religious holidays – the Festival of Sacrifice. That’s how they commemorate the day when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son to God, but then a sheep was sent to him to sacrifice it instead of Ishmael.
Many people buy a sheep now to sacrifice it to God, prepare the meat in a traditional way and eat it with the whole family. But this is not so easy at all, because not everyone can afford to buy a sheep or other animal. And that’s what happens in Morocco:
The thinnest and poorest animal costs about 70-80 Euro. If you want to buy a sheep with good quality meat, you have to spend about 200 Euro. If you prefer another animal, e.g. a cow, with a low-cholesterol meat, you need to pay 500 Euro. And an average monthly salary in Morocco amounts to 500 Euro (although there are huge differences between income in villages and cities and between social classes). To save some money on the future victim, Moroccans are ready to travel far away to buy a cheaper sheep. Citizens of Marrakesh go often to Essaouira (about 90 km) and bring an animal from there. But not everyone can afford a cheaper animal, even from another city. Fortunately, the richer people share with the poorest and give them some parts of their animal. Or buy for them a new sheep. On the other side however, the richest families decide soemtimes to spend their holiday outside the country and spend the money on a journey, rather than on an animal and expensive festival.
Since few days sheep or (rarely) cows are transported on the streets of Marrakesh. They travel in a special carriage, barrow, motorcycle, bike or they are simply pulled on a string and forced to enter into a Moroccan house. Usually the animals don’t fight for their freedom, they follow humbly their new owner. They calmly accept their fate and finally end up on a roof, which is also a terrace of a house. That’s why in the first morning after we arrived to Marrakesh I was woke up not by the usual sound of birds but by a bleating sheep. We went up to the terrace of Yassine’s parents house to check how many new inhabitants there are on another roofs but we noticed just one sheep. More will come today.
Waiting for the sacrifice, sheep eat hay that can be bought now on many streets in the city, also in the center. Usually children are the sellers.
The meat of a sacrificed sheep is enough for the whole family for the next several weeks, depending on the size of the family and the sheep. And so, for example, Yassine’s closest family (3 people) will eat their cow even for the next 5 or 6 months and a family of our friend (8 people) will share their sheep for 2 months more.
During this holiday more animals are killed in the whole world than on any other day…
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