Eid al-Adha

Today we celebrated Eid al-Adha here in Qatar with friends.  It is the "festival of the sacrifice" where Muslims recall the trials of Abraham and sacrifice an animal (sheep, camel, goat etc.) to remind them of his willingness to sacrifice his own son in obedience to God.  (In the end, God provided an animal for him to sacrifice sparing his son.)  There are differences between the story of Abraham in the Bible and Ibrahim in the Qur'an, but the general idea is the same.  I won't go into the differences here (feel free to ask if you'd like clarification).

This is the big festival for Muslims, a time to be with family, enjoy traditional foods, and wear new clothing (get gifts).  This past week was much like the lead up to Christmas in the States.  The stores were crazy busy, driving was hectic (more than usual), people were busy making preparations, and doing their last minute shopping before everything shut down for a nice long holiday break.  We made plans to celebrate the Eid with some good friends who are also far from their families.  Holidays just don't have the same flair when you are away from family and traditions that really make the holiday special. 

It is a really great experience to be invited into someone's home on one of their most important holidays.  Although we don't celebrate this specific holiday, it was an honor to prepare food, buy gifts, get dressed up, and share in something really special to our friends.  I was reminded as I was thinking about the meaning of Eid al-Adha that just as God had provided an animal for Abraham to sacrifice, so He provides for us daily.  Specifically, He's provided us with good friends to enjoy, a lovely place to live and work, food to eat, a car to drive.. and on and on... 

We are blessed. 

Eid Mubarak from Qatar!

P giving baby H a little lamb toy, just like her big one.

Friends.

A and A in their djellabas

A delicious meal. 

Some cookies I made for Eid.  Probably not a very traditional dessert, but yummy anyway.

A pouring the tea.