I saw this cute little booger cruising around in the back of a truck in Sharjah, and began swooning over how adorable he is. Then I found out he was about to be eaten.

October 15th was Eid Al Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice. There are two eid celebrations a year, and this one commemorates Prophet Abraham (pbuh), who was willing to sacrifice his son for God. What this means in practice is that everyone buys a new outfit and has gigantic family celebrations. Of course, many adorable animals are sacrificed in the process. In Islam, sacrifice is an act of charity, since the meat of the sacrificed animal is given away to friends, family, and the poor. So although the many animals I saw being driven around that day were about to land on a dinner plate, it was for a good cause.

Another interesting note: In some traditions, sacrifice is interpreted as somehow ‘feeding’ God. This is absolutely not the case in Islam, since God is viewed as an entity free of human desires such as eating and sleeping. Sacrifice is also not an act performed to appease an angry God, but rather a simple act of charity. More information can be found from this Huffington Post article (Article by Mike Ghouse), where the Muslim author gives more information relating to what sacrifice means in Islam.