That's a line from the 80's song "What I Am" by... ________________
So, what does any of that have to do with what I'm writing about today?
Not much. However, if you knew the first name of the singer, you got the name of the Muslim holiday that occurred yesterday. So in a round-about way, they are connected (religion, Edie Brickell, Eid-al-Adha).
Yesterday was the holiday Eid-al-Adha in the Muslim world. Most people here simply refer to it as "Eid". It's a pretty big deal as everything closes down and kids are out knocking on doors looking for candy. In a few cases, the kids didn't even knock, they just opened our door and asked for candy.
You may be asking yourself "what IS Eid?". This holiday is a celebration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his first-born son Ishmael because God had asked him to. In the story, at the last minute, God appeared to Abraham and said "Just Kidding, LOL!" and instead they sacrificed a sheep.
In modern times (that's now), either a sheep or a goat is typically slaughtered. **Don't worry, they eat the meat**. Additionally, it's a day to have large feasts and share/socialize with family and friends.
Your intrepid bloggers were invited to a friends home to celebrate the holiday with a local family. Being somewhat adventurous in nature, we accepted the offer, donned our Sunday finest, and trekked to the home of a local Tajik family to see what it's all about.
Since it was a day of having guests and feasting, we started our day by inviting over one of our friends (Katie) and having a large breakfast of pancakes with syrup and bacon! Afterward, we all headed to our friend Firuza's home for traditional Tajik celebrations.
In strict traditional households, the women and men are separated and will feast and socialize separately. In less-strict homes (as was our hosts), the men and women co-mingle so everyone feels comfortable.
We can't thank Firuza and her parents enough for inviting us into their home and making us a part of their traditions. And the sheep was mighty tasty!
Here's some pictures of what our day looked like (mostly what we ate).
Bought the Aunt Jemima @ a yard sale - don't judge. And yes, we were well aware of the irony of eating bacon on a Muslim holiday - don't judge.
Children literally scaled the wall to get candy from us.
Look at all this food! We were so full of bacon already that we couldn't eat much.
Our hostess Firuza. Naturally we gave her grief about the socks not matching :)
Firuza's father cooking the sheep.
After the feast.
For dinner, Katie made us "tacos" but refused to wash the dishes.
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