Eid al-Adha

We've had three days off this week for Eid al-Adha. This is the Islamic holiday that commemorates Abraham's obedience and willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Muslims remember this holiday by sacrificing a sheep.

This is more of a hands-on holiday than several of our holidays where we go to the frozen section of our nearest grocery store and buy a prepared turkey or ham. Instead, Muslims buy a live sheep, slaughter, drain, and skin it before serving it up to the family in a Thanksgiving-style type dinner.

I did not have the camera with me on Tuesday morning when I left our house and saw several people preparing their recently slaughtered sheep in front of their houses.

Shelley and I did, however, get pictures of a few stands on the side of the freeway where sheep were being sold and slaughtered. We had to turn on the DVD player in our car so we did not have to explain the sights to our kids and risk them becoming vegetarians.

There was a third picture in this series of pictures, but Shelley had me remove it.