Now there's something you don't see every day

On Monday morning a cow and a sheep stood quietly, tethered beneath the cool shade of the mango trees in the school courtyard. It’s a very narrow courtyard, usually crowded with students’ parked motorbikes. The cow and sheep didn’t do much except try to eat some leaves on the bushes that grow just outside the school fence. I was there a few minutes before 7 and the school was quite empty, save for a few students taking pictures of the nonplussed cow and sheep.

I skyped a bit and signed off at 8:30 because several screams in the courtyard alerted me to the fact that things were starting. The students stood around this end of the courtyard with their camera phones out, capturing footage. The cow had been laid low with its hooves tied together and harness over its mouth. I looked around and realized the sheep had already lost its head.

If you’re thinking this sounds vaguely like a scene from Alice in Wonderland there are some similarities - one in particular, I felt I had stepped into a topsy-turvy world. The main difference, however, was that the world was upright and there was no line between myth and daylight.  

According to the tradition of Idul Adha, affluent Muslims must purchase a goat, sheep, camel or, usually, a cow to sacrifice as a symbol of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son to God. One third goes to the family, one third to friends and the other third to the poor, although this division varies (almost all of our cow/sheep went to some 250 poor families in the surrounding community). I’ve read in articles since Sunday that more than 100 million animals are slaughtered worldwide in the two days of Eid (10 million in Pakistan alone). All holidays are costly, that is to say, where there’s a holiday, there’s a thriving business scene behind it; but this may be one of the more expensive ones. For a somewhat funny article about how one cattle trading family feels at this time of year (among other topics about Idul Adha) see this article: http://indonesianow.blogspot.com/2013/10/idul-adha-no-place-for-squeamish.html

In my ignorance last Saturday I assumed that my principal would be paying for the sacrificial animals. As it turns out, each student contributed Rp 30,000 (about $3) beforehand. The teachers also contributed an unspecified amount. The sheep cost Rp 2,575,000 (~$200) and the cow cost Rp 15 million (~$1,200). Another statistic: Muslims worldwide shell out about $3 billion USD for these 100 million animals slaughtered on this holiday (all of this from Wikipedia btdubs).

I’ve changed my opinion about all this over the past few days. It’s easier to speak in numbers. It’s harder to grasp the meaning of Idul Adha from a Western perspective where slitting the throat of an animal who is fully conscious would be considered brutal, archaic or inhumane. Indeed, according to Pisani, Australia stopped exporting cattle to Indonesia two years ago after they saw some scenes aired of animal brutality in Indonesian slaughterhouses. I don’t know what was going on exactly in those slaughterhouses but my teachers at least spoke to me about how letting the blood from the neck wound pour into the hole and the whole ritual with all the prayers and singing is in fact their way of preparing the meat to be halal, or prepared according to Muslim law. Although watching the cow’s final distraught moments was terrifying, I have to admit that it is more than I have ever done for any meat I’ve eaten.

 

When I started talking about Idul Adha being about sacrifice my counterpart cut in (I do apologize for the puns - this whole experience really is affecting me and my way of dealing is by making light of it) and said “that is the story but the most important value is community”. There’s that word again. The atmosphere surrounding Monday was similar to Idul Fitri and to our Christmas: a religious ceremony, feasting and the spirit of giving. Although a lot of people celebrated Eid-al-Adha on Sunday (like my family), many schools, excluding public elementary schools*, hosted a sacrifice on Monday. Some students stayed to bag the meat which would then be distributed to some designated poor families. Today one of the teachers made beef soup and a yellow rice cake and so so much more food for all of the teachers.

After the sacrifice was over, the students laid out some plastic school banners and an assembly line was started from the tree to which the cow was still tied. The students, in their pristine white shirts and pale blue pants, separated the meat into neat lines of 1 kilo amounts - only the boys actually.

 

Portions of meat also go to students whose parents or close family members have died. They got tickets and handed those tickets in for bags of meat. I am constantly surprised at the level of attention the school/teachers pay to the students.

 

*Acting Jakarta Governor passed a controversial decree on July 17^th prohibiting the sale and slaughter of livestock on elementary school property because of the potential psychological effects on students (http://beritajakarta.com/en/read/3408/Governor_Decree_on_Slaughter_of_Sacrificial_Animals_Misinterpreted#.VDIpB7scSW8 )