Blood in the streets of Fez

It really was quite an experience being out and about on the Eve of the Eid – ‘Feast of the Sacrifice’ - the second most significant festival on the Muslim calendar. Like Christmas for us, there was a genuine buzz of excitement in the air, with people making last minute preparations and purchases in readiness for a week of feasting and family time.

The one key difference, however, was that rather than going to Safeway to buy some nicely pre-butchered and pre-packed meat…people were out and about picking up a sheep so that they could DIY.

The Eid festival is based on the story where God tells Abraham to kill his first-born son as a sacrifice. Because of Abraham’s faith, God intervenes and tells him to sacrifice a lamb instead.  To this day, Muslims throughout the world continue to celebrate this act of faith by sacrificing a sheep. It’s estimated that 5 million sheep were slaughtered in Morocco alone.

We knew we were going to be in for a fairly intense couple of days. The sheer number of people herding sheep through the maze-like Medina, coupled with the amount of people that were having their knives sharpened by vendors with spinning stones on the side of the street gave a fair indication of what was to follow.

We woke up the next morning to the sounds of bleating sheep. Given that Monique tears-up at the sight of a malnourished kitten, we knew that she was going to be in for a long day.

Around mid morning, we made our way up to the roof of our Riad…and then Monique promptly headed back inside.

The roof of our Riad gave an amazing view across the city, allowing us to watch as countless families across Fez slaughtered their sheep on their rooftops. Given how closely all the buildings are crammed in together, Daniel was able to watch from literally a couple of meters away as two families went through the ritual.

It was without hesitation one of the most amazing things he has ever witnessed. Firstly, seeing the process of slaughtering, skinning and gutting the sheep was quite eye-opening, and certainly made us quite appreciative of the ability to go to the supermarket and get our meat in a packet.

Secondly, it was quite incredible to watch a ritual that obviously had such a rich tradition and had been passed down through many many generations. Both families that Daniel watched were led by the father, who was assisted by his sons. In both cases, the women were out and responsible for cleaning up the blood. When the process was finished, the young girls would bring out trays of drinks and biscuits. It was fascinating to watch something that was so very foreign and discomforting for us, yet so normal for these families.

As the day went by, it wasn’t long before Fez was covered in a smoky haze and the mouth-watering aroma of barbequed lamb chops. We decided to take our chances and risk being eternally lost in the back streets of Fez and go for a walk.

Again, this proved to be one heck of an experience. In short, our senses were assaulted by the sights and smells of 5 million bloodied sheep skins (maybe a bit of an exaggeration – but there was certainly a lot!)  piled high on every street corner. As if this wasn’t enough, we had to walk around countless spot fires in the street as people were barbequing the now-detached heads of their sheep so they could eat the brains for breakfast the next day.

It sure was an eye opening and memorable couple of days.