Eid al-Adha or Feast of Sacrifice
Eid al-Adha is celebrated on the 10th of Dhul-Hijja (last month of Muslim lunar calendar) which day is called the day of sacrifice (Nahr). The Eid al-Adha occurs during the annual Hajj when approximately 2 million Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims celebrate the Feast of Sacrifice in honor of Abraham (Ibrahim) whom they believe would have sacrificed Ishmael within the Kaaba in Mecca, except that Allah provided a sacrificial lamb for Ishmael. Hundreds of sheep, goats, and camels are sacrificed each year during the Eid al-Adha.
Sacrificial beasts strike back in Turkey
Tue Jan 10, 2006 5:33 PM GMT
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The Muslim faithful are supposed to sacrifice sheep or other livestock for the Eid al-Adha festival, but in Turkey more than 1,600 people cut themselves and two died of heart attacks on Tuesday.
Turkey's streets annually run with blood as sheep and cattle have their throats cut on pavements and waste ground to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son for God. The scenes are decried by the secular media which every year calls for an end to the public slaughter.
Three people suffered heart attacks and two of them died while carrying out sacrifices, state-run Anatolian news agency said, and 1,664 were hospitalised nationwide, mostly from cuts suffered while trying to hold down struggling beasts.
Television showed a number of bulls escaping the knife and running down the streets. One butted open the door of a corner shop and took refuge inside. Angry bulls in at least two places attacked their would-be killers and put them in hospital.
But one man in the western province of Bolu solved the problem of how to catch an escaped bull by shooting it in the legs with a shot-gun and then cutting its throat.
A portion of the meat from the dead animals is distributed to the poor.
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