Dear all


Well, in Morocco, two religious seasons are nearly upon us. You may be surprised to know that Christmas trees are on sale for all those foreigners who celebrate Christmas, and Christmas decorations can be seen in many shop windows and even in supermarkets. The other religious festival - which will take place a few days before Christmas, on 21 December - is the Muslim festival of Aid Al-Adha (also known as Aid Al-Kabir). This festival occurs approximately 2 months after the end of Ramadan, and coincides with the day that all the pilgrims doing the Haj in Mecca come down from Mount Arafat. The festival commemorates God commanding Abraham to sacrifice a sheep instead of his son, Isaac. In Morocco, families have been busy getting ready for the festival for several weeks now. Houses have been fully cleaned, and the necessary utensils (knives, hatchets, and skewers) and materials (spices and charcoal) are ready. On the actual day, men will go to the mosque early in the morning to perform a specific prayer for the day. Once back home they will proceed to the slaughtering of the sheep which is then cooked according to different recipes, depending upon the region one is located in.


At the moment, it is not unusual to see sheep being delivered by truck, hand trolley, the boot of someone's car, or on foot throughout the Medina and other parts of the city. Hay bales have been stacked all over the place so that the sheep have something to eat prior to D-day, and one can see big stone wheels dotted about the Medina to be sure that knives are well sharpened for the occasion. As well, mini BBQs, shish-kebab skewers and other items for the event can be found for sale on every corner! No tinsel for this occasion, but special halawa are made and these have been selling out before they are even out of the oven!

I have taken some photos of the souk where Najib was selling his sheep this morning (one of the many souks he has been selling at over the last week, so he is looking abit tired and in need a nice long rest), which you can find here:

At the sheep souk

While it may seem as though we will be eating lamb for some months, a large portion is actually given away to the poor, much is salted and dried for later use during the year, a small portion is eaten, and the rest frozen. I suspect that a lot of fish and vege's will be eaten as people tire of eating lamb - though the price of these items has been increasing steadily over the last week. As an example, tomatoes (which are eaten by the kilos per day in every household) have doubled in price from DH4.00 (about A$0.60) to over DH8.00 (about A$1.30) per kilo. Whilst this may seem a pitiful amount, it is actually quite expensive given the wages here.

And that is about it for the moment. I hope you all have a very happy and safe religious holiday, which ever one you happen to celebrate, and a very safe and happy New Year. If I don't do another update before the end of this year, chat to you again, inshallah, in 2008!

Love and kisses, as always,
xoxoxoxo Zohra