Tabaski---round two

November 7th 2011 marked this year's Tabaski, a.k.a. Eid al-Adha, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it :) This would mark the second Tabaski I've ever celebrated.  This year seemed to be much easier for me than last year.  For some reason I felt like last year it was important for me to watch the slaughtering of the sheep, like it was some cultural exchange I would be missing out on if I didn't.  This year, I told my family I've seen enough sheep throat slitting last year to last me a life time.  Instead, I settled for sitting with the women and cutting millions of onions and potatos.  I found that much more enjoyable than witnessing two sheep deaths and dismemberments---it's not really my thing. 

Preparing the meat for the meal

My sister and Aunt cutting onions and potatos

My family killed two sheep this year. It was a really special day for them :) I helped with cooking preparations most of the day.  For a pre-breakfast we ate mooney, a hearty and delicious millet porridge, which was followed by the Tabaski breakfast of sheep heart, liver, and ribs bbqed and sauteed with a delicious onion/mustard/vinegar/Spice sauce----I lack the words to describe how delicious this sauce is--seriously--it sounds weird but it is delicious! We ate that with our hands and bread.  I didn't actually eat any of the meat this year being a vegetarian and all.  Last year, I was new and afraid of offending my family, but they seemed to understand this year.

My brothers preparing the second sheep

This is how you cut meat here

After breakfast, we spent most of the afternoon preparing the lunch. It consisted of green peas (not from a can), sheep meat, boiled potatos, and the same delicious onion sauce.  We ate that with our hands and bread as well. Check out the pic:

After lunch, my family and I drank cold and refreshing ginger juice that I purchased for the occaision.  Around the evening, my brothers and sisters and I got all dressed up in our nicest clothes (I had some made but don't have a photo to show y'all), and we walked around to our friend's and neighbor's houses to greet them and ask for Salybo (gifts or money). I didn't ask for any gifts, in fact, this year (like last year) I handed out gifts to the kids and my family.  I bought a huge container of 100 lollipops and gave them to the children. :) Tabaski is the biggest holiday here (kind of like Christmas in Amerik) so buying a ton of candy for my favorite kids in the neighborhood was the least I could do :)  It was actually a really lovely day.  I spent all day with my family, I ate delicious food (no sheep meat!), and I was able to let my friends and family here know how important they are to me.

Drinking refreshments

My brother sharing the sheep meat with neighbors

I even got all dolled up for the greeting portion of the holiday! I had my hair braided like last year, and I had henna tatoos done on my feet.  I didn't put any on my hand like I did last year.  Henna here take a long time of sitting with the henna on your feet and plastic bags over them, unable to move. I wanted to have my hands free if my feet were to be bound by beauty preparations. Check out my henna:

If you're muslim, I hope your Tabaski was as nice as mine.  I'm glad I was able to spend two Tabaski holidays with my family.  It was a new experience, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn about it!