Survivors

This weekend is Eid Al-Adha (or Idul Adha here in Indonesia), the Feast of the Sacrifice, an important Muslim holiday to honor the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his young first-born son Ishmael (before God intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead).  Celebrations are also connected to the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

In practice, during this holiday, animals are sacrificed and their meat is split into 3 parts, one third for the family to eat, one third for extended family and friends and one third for the poor and needy.  The animal is typically a cow, I understand, but most of what I have seen for sale here for the holiday is goat.  Goat markets pop up everywhere- tied up a long fences, at intersections, in random fields...  Wikipedia tells me that during the 2 days of Eid Al-Adha each year, over 100 million animals are killed as part of the celebrations.

I caught a photo of these goats this afternoon in a lot near our grocery store, reveling in the fact that they were not sold for sacrifice over the holiday weekend.  I imagine them singing, to the tune of Destiny's Child's song, Survivor, "I'm a survivor, I'm gonna eat grass, not getting slaughtered, gonna eat more grass!"