XVIII. Sheep, sheep everywhere…

27 November 2009

Sheep in the shop, sheep at the police station, sheep on the balcony, sheep running away...
Here in Tunisia (and across the Muslim world), today is the biggest feast of the Muslim calendar, Eid Il Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice. It’s also known in other countries as Bayram, Tabaski, and generally as Eid il Kibir…the big feast. It commemorates Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic)’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Every Muslim family who can afford it has bought a sheep that is killed and eaten today and tomorrow.

For the last week, there have been sheep tied up everywhere...in the doorways of shops, at the police station, and wandering the grounds of the Ag Institute. On the building around the corner from me, there are sheep on the little balconies in a nest of straw on the 2nd and 3rd floors (look carefully at the balconies in the lower left and the center top of the photo). We're talking sheep, not lambs...they have to be at least a year old, and in good shape, so they are not really small.  The sheep on the top balcony apparently was not well-looked after...he was missing his bale of straw! 

Apparently, no matter how long you have the sheep for – a week or a day, it needs a whole bale of straw with it at all times. I think it must be people’s idea of keeping the sheep in good health and happy until they’re killed. Last night, when I went to the local supermarket (which was crazier than on Thanksgiving eve in the US), I saw a compact car…a Fiat or something, so a VERY compact car, parked out front with a bale of hay on the back seat and a sheep standing on the floor behind the front seats! I kid you not!

The sheep tied with a string to the shop door were cute with their bales of hay, but by mid-morning today, any which had not been slaughtered knew what was coming. And there were bags of straw everywhere.

I  walked around the Medina this morning, which was lovely as there was no one there. I could see all the buildings (and doors!) I’ve not seen before. I have walked by this very nice building at least ten times before, but never saw how beautiful it was because of all the merchandise and people blocking it. I was taking a picture of it, when this big ram comes charging along the cross street, and disappears around a corner. A guy standing on the street tried to grab the ram's horns as he went by, but missed. Then four big guys come tearing after it, and disappear as well. I stood there for a couple minutes to see if they came back with the sheep, but they didn’t…wonder if he escaped? 

As I sit here writing this, Tunisian bagpipe music is playing outside, but almost no other noise – no cars or other city noise. The whole city is shut down for the feast, and the streets are almost deserted. It is very peaceful with everyone at home for the feast.

I was invited to Mehdi's parents for the feast this afternoon. I asked several of my Tunisian colleagues what to bring - the women said cake. However, Mehdi said flowers because when we went to the south two days ago, in Kairouan his uncle bought a lot of sweet pastries for the feast. They are called "pinched" because there are dates inside a crust that is pinched together. They are fried and then drenched in honey, guaranteed to spike your blood sugar!

So, yesterday afternoon, I went down by the port where the flower sellers are, and bought a nice bouquet of roses and carnations and some very sweet smelling leaves, that the vendor put together while I was standing there. As I walked back to my hotel, a woman and several men asked me for them. When I got to the hotel, the bartender pretended like they were for him. The bartender was nice enough to find and loan me a vase to keep them overnight. This afternoon as I was walking out to meet Mehdi, several other men asked for them and a deaf man sweeping the street made gestures for me to give them to him! I guess it was a suitable bouquet for the 'Eid!

'Eid il Kibir is a lot like Thanksgiving, in that people pretty much eat themselves into a coma. Mehdi’s parents live in a nice little villa with a walled yard in a quartier of Tunis near the lake. When we got there about 2 PM, his mother was barbequing lamb, and Mehdi took over to do sausage and some other stuff. It was a beautiful, sunny day, warm enough to be outside with a sweater. We ate outside on a raised patio, which had blue, white, and green Tunisian tile work on three sides. There were lemon and orange trees in the garden, and it was very pleasant.

The meal was an experience! There were plates of at least six different cuts of meat, and some beef as well as the mutton. It was very good, although not quite Dan Macon’s lamb! I was expecting something more like the mixed bag of small pieces cut up and grilled like I’d had in Kairouan earlier in the week, but there were chops, cutlets, and a bunch of other things. I was sort of wondering how they’d gotten all that meat off one sheep, and then they showed me the actual sheep meat. Most of what was cooked they had bought ahead so they wouldn’t spend the whole day preparing the sheep! They were going to cook the rest of it over the next few days. I guess that has become common, as otherwise it can take the hole day to prepare the meal.

The feast continues tomorrow with more meat and a lot of pastries. Anyway, most of what we had was meat…I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much meat at one sitting. The accompaniments were harissa, the Tunisian hot sauce; a bit of grilled peppers, French fries and breads. I was surprised that there were not salads, though, as usually the Tunisians eat salads. When we were all sufficiently torpid from too much food, we moved into the living room and had sweet tea and Tunisian cookies!

I had a really interesting conversation with Mehdi’s mother about Tunisian history and culture. It was nice to hear about her memories of growing up in Djerba, an island off the southern coast. Tunisia, like Morocco, has always had a Jewish population, and she talked about how they had specific professions in the community, but said were always considered to be as Tunisian as any Muslims. During World War II, since Tunisia was a French Protectorate, it was under the control of Vichy France, so they were rounding up Jews as well. She said that Tunisians hid a lot of their Jews in the city of Kairouan, as it had been forbidden to non-Muslims, so no Europeans went there. Interesting historical tidbit!

We were there until about 6 PM, and when Mehdi and his family dropped me off, they were heading to his wife, Narja’s family, where Mehdi told me they would eat again! And more tomorrow! Yikes! Eid mubarak! or Eid mabruk! (they both mean happy feast!)