Eid al-Adha is probably the most important Muslim festival, and is celebrated by the family in accordance with the Hadiths (sayings of the Prophet Mohammed). In Morocco there are 3 days of national holidays, which in 2020 started on Thursday 30 July.

The dates of all the Muslim festivals and practices are controlled by the lunar calendar and so move 11 days every year.

To truly follow the Hadith, each head of household who can afford it must sacrifice a male sheep at least 12 months old, and must donate what the family cannot consume to the poorer members of the local community.

I will not go into all the details of what takes place, as I am aware that some of the readers of this blog are vegan, some vegetarian, and many of the meat eaters choose not to know what happens before a piece of meat ends up on a plate in front of them. My personal view has always been that, if I choose to eat meat, I must be prepared to understand all that is involved, so I got very few surprises. I also believe that if an animal is killed for food, as much as is feasible should be eaten or used in some other way.

From what I have seen, the animals involved have all had much longer lives, of a better quality than any sheep that I have ever eaten in the UK. Because they are used from birth to being around and handled by humans every day, they were not stressed by the procedures involved, and all was done as quickly and simply as possible.

Almost every lamb eaten in the UK will have been taken from its mother fairly young, castrated and kept with others of its age on a lowland grass field until large enough to be killed. A Moroccan ram has to be at least 12 months old, has been kept on the small farm it was born on all its life, and has eaten a wide variety of plants. It has been sheltered in an outhouse every night as there are still wolves in this area.

The wider family gathered for this Eid al-Adha comprised 6 households, so 6 rams were sacrificed. Because Assia and Jamel have no real income at present, I decided that I would buy ‘our household’ a ram.

During the couple of weeks leading up to Eid al-Adha, the house was spring cleaned, a huge new freezer was bought, and trips were made to the nearest weekly market, at Oued Laou, to purchase rams.

This is the very relaxed first purchase with Lahcsen

Assia and Soufiane ‘dancing’ their way though the market

Abderrahmen looks at a parcel of sheep

This is typical of the small groups of sheep brought to market. On this occasion, we left without buying as none of the sheep were up to standard. The final rams, including mine, were bought in Amsa via word of mouth. As they came from Amsa they were organic.

The religious preparation commenced on the Thursday with a day of fasting, called Arafa. This was exactly as the fasting days during Ramadan, so we all got up at 3.30 am for breakfast and then had nothing at all until 8.30 in the evening. The family all prayed 5 times during the day, but otherwise it was a normal day. We are next door to a Mosque (which is now open), so some of the men went there for some of their prayers.

View from my balcony

I woke on Friday to the smell of woodsmoke drifting into my room. This was from Saffia heating her outdoor oven to bake some special bread.

In our house the day started with Yassin leading prayers. Initially it was just the men, all dressed in their best robes (and Janette).

After a while they were joined by the women (still in normal attire) and the sandals were all left at the door

The singing of the prayers was quite impressive. I have some recordings on my phone’s ‘voice memos’ but no idea how to transfer them to my computer.

Then everyone greeted everyone else with ‘Eid Mubarrak Said’ which is the equivalent of ‘Happy Christmas’, and we sat down to a normal breakfast.

Afterwards the best robes were changed for working clothes and the sacrifices took place.

My ram has his final photo shoot

Everything was done by members of the family, including the butchering, and then the celebrations could start. Which in Morocco means eating, eating and yet more eating. There is no present giving, and no other activities that I could discern.

The family was augmented by sister Wafaa, who arrived from Madrid a few days before, adding an energy to the family that was amazing. She could even persuade the normal couch potatoes to put in hours of hard work.

A few days before Eid al-Adha, the government had suddenly stopped all non-essential travel between cities, so Sadek, a cousin of Assia’s who lives in Tetouan (25 minutes away), brought his late teenage sons to join us, as his wife and daughter were stuck in Rabat. He is a senior fireman and well over 6ft tall, so he was very useful indeed. Incidentally the Moroccan Fire Service is really a complete Rescue Service as he is also a diver and would carry out any type of rescue, including those performed in Britain by police divers and mountain rescue teams.

There were seven rams actually bought. The seventh was for a friend who has no land. He was coming here to perform his sacrifice, but also got stuck in Rabat. That ram is still alive and living with a ewe and her daughter that Fatima bought for this ‘farm’. A lucky lad indeed!

The dining area was completely transformed to seat so many people.

Another table was added later

As barbecuing is involved, of course the men like to take charge of the cooking. This continued for several days.

The pressure cooker  is the most essential item of equipment in a Moroccan kitchen. This household has several in different sizes.

With so much meat to eat, nothing else was cooked, and the only foods we seemed to eat for several days were meat, bread and fruit.

We are now stuck in Amsa, as we are not allowed to travel back to Rabat. Yassin had to get a special authority to return last Sunday, as his holidays have now ended. He works for the Moroccan Customs. Zinabeddin tried to return by train, but was turned back at Rabat station and forced to return here. And he lives in Rabat where he has a share in a business.

The reason, of course, is that the number of Covid cases has risen since they relaxed some restrictions. The current number of new cases is similar to that in France, but the total number of deaths is only about 1% of those in the UK.

Every few days we hear sirens on the road outside. The first time, it was the King, in a police convoy, travelling to one of his palaces at al-Hoceima on the coast near the border with Algeria. Since then there has been another convoy every few days. Now they escort a small lorry, apparently carrying fresh provisions to the palace. The King and the 18 year old Crown Prince always travel with police escorts and sirens – they can have no idea what normal life is like in the country. The Crown Prince even had his own school, with specially chosen companions as the other pupils, though they had to be bright in order to push him academically. Having passed the French Baccalaureate, I understand he will now go to a French University.