Skip to main content

Eid al-Adha

Friday was Eid al-Adha and we celebrated a little ourselves. We had three Muslim families from St. Cloud, Colombia Heights, and Bloomington come to the farm and select live sheep for slaughter from our flock. They slaughtered them in the halal way and hung them from ancient oaks to butcher them. It was a very festive event with children running around yelling and adults, some of whom only spoke Arabic, enjoying being outside and sacrificing a lamb like Ibrahim did. One woman was a Metro Transit bus driver and she told us how important it was to get good food for her family. Price did not matter. She and her mother were from Morocco. We harvested some onions, cucumbers, and zucchini for her.

 As the people of Islam say, Eid Mubarak. Blessed Feast!

Earlier this week our chickens went to slaughter. A Mexican friend bought all the feet. She said good chicken soup needs chicken feet.

 Blessed feast to all.

 There is an interesting article about Eid al-Adha and ritual slaughter at Sahan Journal. One thing the author missed, from our experience, is the deep regard our visitors have shown our sheep. Last year our friend Naj embraced his sheep and kissed it before sacrificing it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let us all walk in the foot steps of John Lewis

By John King In Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, standing in the lead of a long line of marchers, looked down from the crest of The Edmund Pettus Bridge at the line of police armed with clubs, whips and truncheons and said, “I am going to die here.” Lewis intended to lead the marchers from Selma to the capital Montgomery, to demand access to voting for Black people in Alabama. Sheriff Jim Clark lowered his gas mask and led the deputies, some on horseback and some on foot, into the line of marchers. Under swinging clubs and hooves trampling, Lewis was the first to go down. Women and children were not spared. Choking and blinded by tear gas, they were struck by clubs and truncheons wrapped with barbed wire. Lewis, with a fractured skull and a severe concussion, almost did die. The nearby Good Samaritan Hospital did not have enough beds to care for the injured marchers. A nation watched in horror as news footage of that bloody day appeared on T...
2 comments
Read more

More Republican dirty tricks

  As a Blue Dog Corporate Democrat, 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson’s votes in Congress go against the beliefs and convictions of progressive voters in our district. I’m one of those progressive 7th District voters. Like most average voters I rarely actually encounter my Member of Congress. However, I recall three encounters with Rep. Peterson over the many years I’ve been stuck with him. I met him at Mikey’s Restaurant, on Main Street in Long Prairie, when he was first campaigning for a seat in Congress. We were both young then and he was full of energy and inspired in me a sense of hope for positive change. Besides, I’d met the Republican incumbent. He was an older man who, it seemed, was operating on dead batteries. I was happy to vote for the energetic Peterson. Some years later I was a delegate to the DFL District convention in Bemidji. Peterson opposed a woman’s right to choose abortion. He was being challenged by a woman who supported the right to that choice. I gave...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tobacco taxes save lives

In 2014 the Obama administration had a bright idea. They proposed raising the federal tax on tobacco and they planned to use the revenue to increase in early childhood education.  It was a stroke of genius. On the one hand, by raising the tobacco tax they’d reduce rates of smoking and, as a consequence, smoking related illness and deaths. On the other hand, they’d create funding for an education program known for fostering children to grow into a healthy and prosperous adulthood.  There is a direct evidence based link between early childhood education and success later in life. There is also irrefutable scientific evidence of the positive connection between higher tobacco taxes, reduced rates of tobacco use, and reduced illness. Frank J. Chaloupka, of the University of Illinois, and his colleagues reported on their review of over 100 studies across the globe in their 2012 study called “Tobacco taxes as a tobacco control strategy.”  http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.c...
3 comments
Read more