I didn't have anything monumental planned for today, but I decided to walk downtown to restock my groceries. In the distance, I heard the horns and drums of a small ensemble playing, but it didn't dawn on me. I kept walking, and then I remembered that my landlady was home, when I left...that was also unusual.
But I've never been one to deduce things from subtle clues that surround me, even though I love reading mysteries. It wasn't until I started passing darkened stores that I realized that today must be a holiday in Bosnia.
The Feast of the Sacrifice, Eid-al-Adha, is a Muslim holiday that commemorates Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice Ishmael (Isaac) at Allah's (God's) command. (Isn't it funny how, most Americans see Muslims as strange, yet we share much of the same heritage?) It is considered the more significant of the two Eid holidays, the other being Eid al-Fitr, the "breaking of the fast" at the end of the month of Ramadan.
Eid-al-Adha doesn't fall on the same date of our (Gregorian) calendar every year, nor is it observed on the same date in each country. It is traditionally celebrated by people attending mosque, dressing up and visiting neighbors, and slaughtering animals for a feast. Here is a Washington Post pictorial feature from last year covering two rural Bosnian communities' celebrations.
And here's a YouTube video from the Associated Press archive, showing Bosnians celebrating the holiday during the Siege era. Again this is twenty years old, as evidenced by the footage of both Russian and American, peacekeepers who were part of IFOR (Implementation Force) in Bosnia between 1995 and 1996. Another note about this clip: the man who appears in the mosque at the 25 second mark is Alija Izetbegovic, the first president of independent Bosnia, who died in 2003.
No comments:
Post a Comment