Tabaski

Tabaski, or Eid al-Adha, is a big Muslim holiday celebrating Abraham's sacrifice, not of his son but of a sheep, and we just happened to be in Dakar at the time of this festival. We have been seeing massive amounts of sheep around the place, for sale with a lot of bleating going on. We saw young boys taking the sheep to the beach to wash them so they would look nice and clean for the sale. We also saw people traveling on buses and in cars with sheep on the roof.

Actually, if you saw how full the car was inside maybe the
sheep had the better spot.

Apparently a real nice sheep can be quite expensive. If a man has several wives he would have to buy a sheep for each one of his households and sometimes it would create a lot of aggression if one happened to get a bigger or better one than another. Someone also said that they even have a sheep beauty contest but I take that with a grain of salt. There is also the expense of buying new clothes for the event, so the tailors are kept very busy. It really is a very big occasion.

Sadly, now it has all gone quiet here in the neighbourhood,  all we can hear from up on the roof terrace  is heavy punching. I think they are cutting and dividing up their sheep next door. The blood has to run off into the ground, into a big hole, so this is done outside the apartment in the sand roads. They estimate that 3 to 4 million sheep are slaughtered in connection with Tabaski.

Most houses including apartment buildings have roof
terraces which is such a good idea in this sort of
climate.You can hang out laundry to dry and have
barbecues or just sitting enjoying the evening. As
you can see we even had a jacuzzi on ours but
we never used it. So much to do, so little time.

From what we were told, the men go to the mosque in the morning and then when they get back the slaughter begins. Son and hubby went out during this quieter period and were welcomed by several families to help with the preparation and told much more about the festival and the traditions.

The neighbours across the street from the house where we were staying were very friendly and invited hubby and our son in to taste the very first parts that they barbecued. It was the kidneys and liver etc. The thing is that you are encouraged in Tabaski to show hospitality towards the poor and needy and strangers, and it must have been in one of those categories that hubby and son fitted in.

Hubby with the far more elegant neighbours. 
Several family members had traveled long
distances to partake of this festival.