Dead Goat Day

The dreaded Idul Adha, the Islamic Day of Sacrifice, passed last Monday and as usual I spent the day indoors. I thought that Sabina, my six year old granddaughter, had escaped any first hand viewing of the slaughter but unfortunately the next day at school, the entire class were witness to the slaughter of several goats. I only found out about it because she talked about it yesterday and described the gory details. In a clear case of religion gone mad, these little children were invited to watch the goats having their throats cut. My initial reaction was naturally one of anger but I was sitting under a photo of Meher Baba at the time and by his grace, I managed to calm myself and not say anything to the rest of the family (who obviously knew what had gone on at the school). Today I took the dog for a walk and Sabina came along with me. At one point, she went into a small convenience store to buy a drink and I sat down on the steps outside. While I was there, a baby goat and an adult goat approached Gromit, a toy poodle, with obvious curiosity. The baby goat actually touched its nose to Gromit's. Unfortunately, Sabina missed seeing this but it was significant to me to see this intelligent, curious creature trying to make sense of Gromit. Both the baby and adult had obviously escaped the slaughter and it was somehow comforting to me to experience that.

As for Sabina, her attitude to goats already seems to have hardened. When she saw the two goats, she made a comment about the killing again and now views them as things that are killed and eaten, not as sentient beings. At least she has now had the opportunity to "meet her meat" but at what a tender age. The photo shows Baba with a baby goat in 1939. Baba once said this about the Day of Sacrifice:

June 21st was the Muslim holiday of Bakri-Id, celebrated in memory of the Prophet Abraham's offering of his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. The Muslim mandali observed the holiday at Meherabad. Remarking about the Muslim custom of slaughtering a goat on this day, Baba conveyed, "They feel that if the Prophet killed a goat on this day, they should do it too. They should try to kill their minds instead of goats! What is the use of slaughtering defenseless animals?"

Baba concluded with this sarcastic remark, "If I ordered the mandali to wear hats and not to ever go out in the sun bare-headed, after some years it will be considered a religious practice to always wear a hat in the sun."

For those who may not know, the mandali were Baba's disciples and this little story reminds us of the silliness and sadness of religious rituals such as "Dead Goat Day".