Eid al-Adha

We have just successfully completed our first two days of a five day break, here in Kuwait.  We ended up not traveling this holiday as prices were way out of teacher's salary price range.  Rather, we decided to stay around the city and see what it has to offer over this holiday weekend.  As we have been enjoying our time away from work, we realized that we did not really know how to explain why we were given a 5 day weekend.  We also did not understand why we have been out walking and coming across a random sheep or goat tied to a car underneath an apartment building.

Enter Wikipedia -- the source for all things knowledgeable.  We finally researched and learned about Eid al-Adha, the holiday that is being celebrated across the Muslim world.  Eid al-Adha is the celebration in remembrance of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his own son to show his commitment and dedication to following God's commandments.  God stepped in at the last minute, stopping the sacrifice and provided Abraham a ram to offer up instead.  So, in honor of this event, this holiday happens in the final month of the Islamic calender and celebrated by having days of prayer, getting together with family, elder members of family giving younger members of family money, and having a big feast of lamb, goats, and rams.  (Sound familiar to anyone else??).

Fun for the families.  Not so fun for the goats!  Over the past few days we have stumbled upon large numbers of sheep and goats for sale.  We randomly drove by a large market which had been converted from selling old furniture to selling livestock.  We also have, one more than one occasion, heard bleating and seen someone's soon-to-be-dinner, tied up by their apartment.   Now that we know why this is happening, we can't help but think that Abraham's son got the better end of this deal!

Just one of the MANY herds of animals we saw while driving the other day.

This beauty tied up waiting for doom's day.

This guy surprised us as we were walking home from the gym.  We did not have the heart to tell him what was coming.

And now this add in the newspaper makes so much more sense.  Our one question:  Don't you think this ad would have more benefit if it were in Arabic?!?!