Animal Slaughtering at It's Finest

Lots of men with blood all over their shirts. Blood on the ground. Body parts and raw meat abounding. I’m glad I was warned, otherwise I would have thought the day of the zombies was upon us. 

I am referring to the sacrifice holiday that happened recently. Locals purchase a live sheep or goat and then slaughter it. This practice began as a way to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to slay his son. After the animal is killed, they then divide up the meat of the animal. They eat a third of the meat, give a third to friends and family, and the last third is given to the poor. The rest of the holiday is spent visiting friends and family. Many will also buy new clothes in celebration of the holiday.

The day was quite interesting. It reminded me a bit of an American holiday. There was much hustling and bustling to get ready for the holiday on the eve. The actual slaughtering day was more slow paced. Most places were closed. 

Of course the holiday is quite different from say Christmas or Thanksgiving. There are no pretty lights, no fun decorations, no peppy music, no holiday parties. Instead these are the kinds of things I saw: 

Signs advertising live animals for sale

The outdoor market area where I buy food transformed
into a slaughtering service

Animals tied up in yards one day...

And then hanging upside down without skins or heads
the next

I also saw a place to sharpen slaughtering knives. Quite different. But for them, it is as normal as us going to the grocery store to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner or going to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree. It’s what they do. 

CFS invited me to celebrate with her. She and her husband own a market. They choose to stay open on holidays so they can make extra money. For this reason, we celebrated at their shop. I arrived to find the goat hanging upside down in front of their shop, a puddle of blood on the sidewalk below, the head, two feet, and a pile of something laying in the grass beyond. Luckily I had missed the actual killing and bloodiest part since I don’t do well with blood. I was lucky enough to show up in time for the removal of the innards.  

Note the close proximity to the store. Quite
sanitary.

Afterwards, they grilled some of the meat and we ate together. I asked what they usually do for this holiday. She said they usually visit family but since the store was open, her family was celebrating without her. She told me they generally visit elderly relatives and do the standard respectful greeting. This greeting involves the greeter kissing the elderly person’s hand and then touching it to the greeter’s forehead. In her case, she called her mom and touched the phone to her forehead since she couldn’t visit. She also told me she had woken early to say prayers. I asked if she normally said prayers and she shiftily said she rarely does them. I also learned that if you’re not on speaking terms with someone, the feud is put on hold for the duration of the holiday and you are kind to the other person. Afterwards, the feud resumes. 

I asked the purpose behind slaughtering the animal, explaining that I generally think sacrifices are made to cover sins. She said they do it to show their gratitude for their abundance. She was recently able to purchase a car. As such, it’s a way to be generous. If she has enough money to buy a car then she has enough to buy an animal and share the meat with others. 

After we finished eating, CFS took the poor goat’s head and went to work on it. She intended to make a soup using the head. There is a saying, “You can take the girl out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the girl.” As I watched CFS skin the goat’s head and whack off it’s horns, I knew that she is the real deal and although I grew up in small town USA, I have never in my life been a country girl. [Beware of graphic picture below!!!]

We took a break for a while and then she told me we had more work to do. By work, she meant we were going to clean the meat of remaining goat fur and cut it into usable portions. I politely declined the offer and instead watched her process the meat. As I watched, I realized that I have no survival skill sets. I could stand to learn a thing or two from her. I also learned that they use every part: the head for soup, the fur is gifted to poor people living in cold countries, the intestines and kidneys will be eaten, the meat on bones will be used for stews, even the fat is used for something.

The brown thing under the meat is the kidney

Intestines?

A bowl of fat

Stomach?

Throughout the day, I kept thinking of this phrase, “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.” I was thankful for the visual picture that one day, there was a sacrifice. The God-man, Jesus, willingly spilt his blood for sinners. He paid the price for sins once and for all. How marvelous.