Eid al-Adha celebrated globally with less spending, high prices and fewer animal sacrifices

Globe and Mail

13 hours ago

Less spending, higher prices and fewer animal sacrifices subdued the usual festive mood as the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha was celebrated in many parts of the world.
Eid al-Adha, known as the 'Feast of Sacrifice,' coincides with the final rites of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. It's a joyous occasion, for which food is a hallmark, with devout Muslims buying and slaughtering animals and sharing two-thirds of the meat with the poor.
Palestinians across the war-ravaged Gaza Strip marked the start of the three-day feast with prayers outside destroyed mosques and homes early Friday.
For the second year since the war with Israel broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, no Muslims in Gaza were able to travel to Saudi Arabia to perform the traditional pilgrimage. With much of Gaza in rubble, men and children were forced to hold Eid al-Adha prayers in the open air, and with food supplies dwindling, families were having to make do with what they could scrape together.
'This is the worst feast that the Palestinian people have experienced because of the unjust war against the Palestinian people,' said Kamel Emran after attending prayers in the southern city of Khan Younis. 'There is no food, no flour, no shelter, no mosques, no homes, no mattresses ... The conditions are very, very harsh.'
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome said Thursday that Gaza's people are projected to fall into acute food insecurity by September, with nearly 500,000 people experiencing extreme food deprivation, leading to malnutrition and starvation.
'This means the risk of famine is really touching the whole of the Gaza Strip,' said Rein Paulson, director of the FAO office of emergencies and resilience.
Our life in Gaza is hungry and sleep-deprived under Israel's blockade
The war in Gaza and the struggle to celebrate were at the forefront of the minds of Muslims in Kenya, Imam Abdulrahman Mursal said as he led Eid prayers in the capital, Nairobi.
'We ask Allah to hear their (Palestinian) cries. We feel their pain, as much as we are far from them,' Mursal said. 'But what unites us is our Muslim brotherhood, so we ask Allah to give them victory and to give victory to all the other Muslims wherever they are, if they are facing any kind of oppression.'
Eid al-Adha commemorates the Quranic tale of Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to God. Before he could carry out the sacrifice, God provided a ram as an offering. In the Christian and Jewish telling, Abraham is ordered to kill another son, Isaac.
South Asian countries like India and Bangladesh will celebrate Eid al-Adha on Saturday. Ahead of the festival, many Muslims in the region were turning to livestock markets to buy and sell millions of animals for sacrifice.
In New Delhi, sellers were busy tending to their animals and negotiating with potential buyers.
Mohammad Ali Qureshi, one of the sellers, said this year his goats were fetching higher prices than last year: 'Earlier, the sale of goats was slow, but now the market is good. Prices are on the higher side.'
Festival preparations also were peaking in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where many Muslims dye sheep and goats in henna before they are sacrificed.
'We are following the tradition of Prophet Ibrahim,' said Riyaz Wani, a resident in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, as his family applied henna on a sheep they plan to sacrifice.
In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, Muslim worshippers were shoulder-to-shoulder in the streets and the Istiqlal Grand Mosque was filled for morning prayers Friday.
Outside Jakarta, the Jonggol Cattle Market bustled with hundreds of traders hoping to sell to buyers looking for sacrificial animals. While sales increased ahead of Eid, sellers said their businesses have lost customers in recent years due to economic hardship following the COVID-19 pandemic.
A foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2022 and 2023 significantly dampened the typically booming holiday trade in goats, cows and sheep, though Indonesia's government has worked to overcome that outbreak.
Rahmat Debleng, one of the sellers in the market, said before the pandemic and the FMD outbreak, he could sell more than 100 cows two weeks ahead of Eid al-Adha. But on the eve of the celebration this year, only 43 of his livestock were sold and six cows are still left in his stall.
Though the threat of a foot-and-mouth outbreak looms large, declining sales are mostly because of economic hardship, Debleng said.
Jakarta city administration data recorded the number of sacrificial animals available this year at 35,133, a decline of 57% compared to the previous year.
The Indonesian government will make Monday an additional holiday after Friday's festival to allow people more time with their families. Eid momentum is expected to support economic growth in Indonesia, where household consumption helps drive GDP. It contributed over 50% to the economy last year, though analysts expect more subdued consumer spending in 2025.