Tabaski! Le Mouton (Lamb)!

Today my little sister woke me up bright and early at 9:00 am to bring me downstairs and show me the lamb that I am to help kill later in the day. The reason for the death of this lamb is the Muslim celebration of Tabaski, a very important holiday for the Muslims who live in Senegal. I'm not sure of the extent to which this holiday is celebrated by all Muslims or by West-Africans, but I know that it is a big deal in this country as 90% of the people here are Muslim. However, the other 10% who are Christian and of other religions also celebrate Tabaski with their Muslim neighbors because of the strong sense of community which is an important element of the Senegalese culture. 

Since mid-September there have been numerous commercials advertising giveaways for lambs and lotteries for the purpose of buying a lamb with the money won. Additionally, since the beginning of October I have seen thousands of lambs standing outside all over Dakar waiting to be purchased. This Tabaski-Season has reminded me so much of the Christmas season in the states when American consumerism is at its peak and there are nothing but advertisements about buying presents for your loved ones on the television. There are billboards everywhere in Dakar advertising lambs for sale and two for one deals. Tabaski also reminds me of Christmas because although each celebration has its foundation in religion, commercialism has worked its way into the holiday. From my personal experiences I feel that Tabaski retains its religious significance more than Christmas. However, on the other hand I think that they both serve to bring friends and families together equally to show their love for each other. I am not that religious so the religious aspect of Christmas has never been that appealing and being with my family is really what's important to me. 

Although everyone seems to enjoy the Tabaski celebration it seems to a be a lot of work for each person in the household and there is undoubtedly an significant element of stress which accompanies the holiday. I say this because of my conversations with my neighbors and my own family, my host mom especially. For the last few days leading up to Tabaski my mom has been very stressed and tired from all of the preparation for the holiday, whether it be finding a lamb or getting the different things around the house ready for the celebration like cleaning the rug we will all be sitting on to eat. This also reminded me of Christmas because we often have Christmas at my home in Sacramento and in the few days before my mom has to run around to the different stores, clean the house and cook the food all at the same time because she wants Christmas to be a good time for everyone.

In addition to the element of stress which comes with the preparation for Tabaski, the lambs are very expensive which can place a tremendous amount of pressure on the men of the family who are expected to buy the lamb. Tabaski is a country wide celebration and there is such a high expectation for each family to have a lamb so when a man is unable to provide a lamb for his family, which is an important part of the religious celebration, I would think he would fell as though he did not fulfill his role.

I was sitting downstairs eating breakfast when my family returned home from the Mosque for morning prayer. There was a man sitting in the courtyard who my host dad later told me was a professional butcher in he community. Amadou, my host brother, brought in the first lamb and I realized it was time to begin the sacrificing of the lambs. Our family had 3 lambs total. One for my mom and dad, one for Dior, Ngioudou and their 2 daughters and the other for Amadou and his Dad. Amadou gave me the first lamb to watch, and he brought over the second lamb to the faucet. The third lamb was still tied up under the stairs as it was the last to be killed. Then my host brother grabbed the lamb by the legs and turned it over on its back. Amadou and the other butcher helped hold the legs and the body down while my brother held the lambs neck and proceeded to cut its throat. It was the firs time I had ever seen an animal killed in front of me and it was very sad to see. There was a lot of blood and Amadou looked away at some point as he was very close to the lamb. After allowing all of the blood to drain out from the lambs neck and body, my brother and the butcher wasted no time with sacrificing the other two lambs. They dragged the body of the first lamb to the middle of the courtyard and preceded to perform the exact same thing procedure with the other two lambs.

My brother Amadou with the lamb

The sacrifice of the lamb 

The reason that I wanted to be present for the sacrificing of the lambs is because I knew that it was the most important element of the Tabaski celebration, a holiday which is essential to the Senegalese culture. Although watching and participating in the sacrificing of the lambs is not something which my previous experiences and upbringing would not necessarily lead me to enjoy, I wanted to experience it for the mere purpose of experiencing something that was unique to the culture of this country. It is also something I will always remember as I was still eating breakfast when they brought in the lambs and killed the first one. After all of the lambs had been sacrificed we began skinning and gutting each of them. Although I didn't actually kill the lamb like my sister had told me earlier in the day, I did get the chance to help my older brother skin the lamb for his family which was a first time experience for me. I didn't use the knife at any time but I held the lamb so that he could get the right angle when cutting it.

The skinning of the lamb

After we cut the lamb I spoke with my host brother about the celebration of Tabaski to clarify some of the things I had been wondering about. He explained that Tabaski was in fact a holiday that all Muslims celebrated across the globe, however many do it on different days and at different times as many people in Dakar actually celebrated Tabaski yesterday instead of today. He said that in the United States many celebrate Tabaski during the nighttime however here in Dakar everyone begins the celebration during the day. I also asked him about the necessity of a lamb and what people think of those men and families who cannot afford a lamb. He said that if someone is not able to afford a lamb it is not a problem. He explained that the sole purpose of the lamb is to serve as a representation of the situation of Abraham who was commanded by God to offer his son Ishmael as a sacrifice. However, as Abraham was about to sacrifice his Isaac, he saw a lamb who he sacrificed instead. 

My brother asked me if I had ever seen an animal killed before and I told him I had not, which surprised him very much. He explained that from a very young age kids in Senegal see the killing of animals because of the Tabaski celebration. I knew this was true as my little sister whose 2nd birthday we just celebrated last week watched the killing of the lambs. None of the adults were concerned with covering her eyes or taking her into another room which I thought they would do. She didn't cry at all during the sacrifice but she was a little scared when the butcher was cutting the lamb up after because he kept hitting the bones with his knife. My brother also mentioned that for him and many other Muslims it is the act of killing a lamb with your hands and actually seeing it die which is important. He explained how he prayed over the animal with the knife before killing, which I got a glimpse of but at the time it seemed like he did it very quickly. This is why he disproves of machines killing animals because he believes that they don't demonstrate respect for the life. I thought this was an interesting point, because at the time all that was on my mind was how they were just butchering the lamb. I did not fully understand the religious significance of the sacrifice and the importance of killing an animal with ones hands as a means of showing respect for its life. 

While the butcher was finishing cutting the lambs and separating the different parts of the lamb's bodies my sister brought over the livers of the lambs for us to snack on. I was a little hesitant to try it because we had literally just killed the lamb that the liver came from no more than an hour before. I didn't know how safe it was but it looked cooked and I figured that we were eating it first because it was the part of the lamb that could be cooked the fastest. Throughout the morning different young boys came to our house and ask for donations of meat. They had little buckets and they would take whatever part of the lamb the family gave them. I talked to Yousou about this after and he said that the boys were orphans from different parts of Senegal who ask for meat from families during Tabaski. Their families are in the rural villages of the country as many of them live in Dakar to just sit on the streets and beg for money daily,

My family snacking on the liver while the butcher finishes his work

After snacking the rest of the Tabaski holiday was very relaxed. My family just hung out around the house and throughout the day we had different visitors like family friends, cousins and people from the neighborhood. My mom and sister prepared dishes of lamb and rice for us to take to the different households of family friends who I think we unable to buy lambs themselves. I went with my little sister Mag and accompanied her to the different houses because I had no idea where I was going and they didn't want her walking around the neighborhood alone. 

Before dinner some of the other students came by my house and we sat outside to talk about experiences so far that day. Many of us did not expect Tabaski to be what it had been up until that point. In terms of my own expectations I thought that there would be a point, right after the sacrifice of the lamb I assumed, when everyone in my family would get dressed up in their traditional clothes. I had heard from Yousou later in the day that it was around 7pm when everyone would put on their clothes, but that was not the case in my household so I was a little confused. At about 8pm my mom asked why I had not changed into my Tabaski clothes and I said that I was waiting for her and the rest of the family to change into their clothes. She laughed and said that I should change into my outfit so that I could go walk around to my different friends households to see their outfits and show them mine. 

So I changed and left my house to walk to Lydia's, who lives around the corner from me, and coincidentally at the same moment I left my house I saw that Lydia, Mec and Amanda were walking towards my house. We were all very excited to see everyone else in their Tabaski outfits because it had been something we all had talked about for the longest time. Everyone in program bought cloth for their outfits and had them custom made for about $30-$40 total so there was a lot of anticipation to see the outfits that every had made. We first checked see if Brittany was home and she was not so we went over to Jack's house and he was home.

Me, Amanda, Mec, Lydia, Jack (Left to Right)

After we left Jack's house we went to meet Katie and Shawny at Katie's house. Katie's host family probably has the nicest house of all of the host families of MSID students. The entire house is indoor and there are two rooms which have air conditioning. Although by US standards this would not be a special thing, here in Dakar air conditioning is very rare as well as houses that are entirely indoor. Many of our homes have courtyards which are a part of the house or staircases which are outdoors. Also most of our families just have fans in all the rooms. We walked into Katie's house and sat upstairs in what I think was the living room. Her host mom brought out drinks and snacks for us. While at Katie's house her host mom pulled me aside and asked me to take a picture with Katie's host sister, which I thought was very funny. She was very nice although it was a little awkward because after meeting them her mom asked me and told me at the same time, "You guys are friends now, okay?".  I told them where I was from and that my internship for the second part of the program would be Theis. They said that their Dad has a home in Theis that he returns to every weekend so we should keep in touch. Although I wasn't really interested in her sister like I'm pretty sure her mom wanted me to be they were all very nice so I was happy to give them my number. Katie also said that they want to me to come have dinner with them this week.

Katie, Shawny, Lydia, me, Amanda (left to right)

Katie's sister and I

After taking pictures at Katie's house we went to the homes of Brigid, Krishna and Courtney to meet their families, show them our outfits and take pictures. This aspect of Tabaski reminded me a lot of Halloween a little bit because we went to each household to show off our outfits and at each house the family brought out snacks or drinks. It was a lot fun meeting the different families of the MSID students, because I had not met the families of Katie, Brigid, Krishna or Courtney before. I think that the families also really enjoyed seeing us in our outfits because they got really excited each time we entered one of the houses. Overall I really enjoyed the Tabaski holiday and it was nice getting a chance to experience and participate in a celebration which is such a big part of the Senegalese culture.