Rabat – Rashid Bagha
In Morocco and other Arab countries, Eid Al Adha is called "the Great Feast", while Eid Al Fitr is called "the Junior Feast". In Eid Al Adha groups of seasonal merchants everywhere in Morocco practice "Ibrahim's Rite", named after the animal sacrificed by the Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH). These groups are specialists in selling Al Adha sacrificial animals (Odhia) and the required equipment and services. They sell animal food, dried clover, barley and hay to the customers who pay in instalments in days before the Feast, a common practice in Morocco. In a place close to the public bus stop at Al Salam in Sala city next to Al Rabat, the capital, two young men erected a makeshift tent to sell coal, mud stoves, and mud casseroles. There are specialists in selling barbecue skewers made of steel and wood and knives for cutting meat and breaking bones. Other groups of young people wander in backstreets and slums pushing carts with equipped with stone wheels to sharpen slaughtering knives. Muslims used to make it easier for the slaughtered animals by using sharp knives to slaughter them easily and quickly. Penknives also get sharpened by the stone wheel to be used in dicing the animal. A knife is sharpened for 5 dirhams, half a dollar, while a big knife is sharpened for one dollar and a half over the few days prior to the feast. Works of transporting animals from public marketplaces of sheep and cattle makes a lot of money to drivers as they take varying fares according to the distance of transportation and the affordability to hire faster transportation means. There are carts pushed or bulled by hand, which usually used for short distances in the same area. Chinese-made motorbikes, designed to work as small carts, are also used in this mission. A day before Eid Al Adha, all of these activities dull and some of them fade away leaving space for other equally important activities. Then the role of butchers becomes more significant as all houseshold make deals regarding animal slaughter. The most expensive service is the butchers’ as some of them demand 50 dirhams (six dollars) just to pass the knife through the animal’s neck within seconds and duplicate this sum for skinning it. Some jobs such as such as removing hair from the head by burning it is done for 15 dirhams. For leather, skin is collected by children, some not more than 16 years old, who sign receipts of 60 dirhams (seven dollars) to take the leather and clean it then bring them back to their owners who use them as rugs and mats. The meat of is then distributed according to what is desired by the household.