Bonjour Senegal!: Tabaski: Pictures

*The following pictures contain images of dead sheep being sacrificed and sorted for the Tabaski holiday. If you've got a weak stomach I might advice you to skip over the first 10 or so pictures. I tried not to put up anything that was too gruesome, but one can only do so much editing...

Tabaski

The day started off like most, but kind of felt like christmas morning. All the kids were super excited and were running around the house like mad. The men went to pray at the mosque while the woman stayed home and prepared the vegetables for lunch.

After the men had returned from morning prayer, everyone changed into their everyday clothes and it was time for the men to slaughter the sheep. Tabaski, which I found out is celebrated primarily in West Africa, is a muslim holiday that is based upon Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for God. God intervenes and replaces Ishmael with a ram. Each male of the house, if the family has the means to afford it, sacrifices a ram. We killed four rams at our house.

After the ram is killed, the blood drains into a hole in the earth and the meat is sorted from the rest. Nothing is wasted. The meat is divided into three parts: one for the family, one for neighbors and friends, and one for the needy or poor. We had little children in fancy outfits waltzing in and out of the house delivering ram legs and rib cages like it was the usual thing to do.

My mom took the meat and then rubbed it with delicious spices and grilled it over charcoal. We made up some lunch plates and sent the little ones off to give them to neighbors. Lunch was wonderful! Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and dressing. Fried potato balls, mouton, mayo, mustard, and pickles. Fresh vegetables! AH! We never eat fresh veggies here... what a treat! It's also traditional to have lots of beverages, so we had an over abundance of coca cola, fanta orange, bissap, ditak, ginger juice, and many, many more.

I passed out in a food coma for while then took a stroll around my neighborhood, Mermoz. Came back home and got dressed in my boubou (see following pictures.) Walked around and looked classy (the whole thing actually reminded me a lot of prom. The 'get dressed up, walk around, have people see you, not really actually do anything' kind of scene.) Everyone tries to buy new boubous for Tabaski if they can afford them. Also children go around asking for little gifts at each house. I guess essentially Tabaski is like Christmas, Thanskgiving, Halloween, and Prom all rolled up into one neat little holiday.

We ate millet and soow (which kind of tastes like a more liquidy version of yogurt with extra sugar added.) with fruit for dinner and my aunt made a delicious, delicious fruit salad for dessert. Kate came by to our neighborhood and Andrew, Joleen, Kate and I swung by our friend Ousman's house and hung out on the roof and stargazed for the rest of the night. Overall it was pretty enjoyable.