Coming from Malaysia, the celebration of Eid ul-Adha was not foreign to me even though I am ethnically Chinese. However, the qurban (sacrifice of livestock) ceremony in Malaysia was usually held in mosques and unlike Pakistan, where the ceremony was usually held in each family’s home. Given the practice in Malaysia, I have actually never witnessed an actual qurban ceremony.
On the eve of Eid and on the morning of Eid, a few of us from EPoD were hosted by CERP colleagues in their family homes and we were fed with scrumptious delicacies. However, our CERP colleagues warned us that Lahore may not be a pretty sight given the scale of sacrificial ceremony that will be held across the city of 13.5million people. Still, I wanted to experience the qurbanceremony in its full spirit.
Our first attempt to witness the qurban ceremony on the first day of Eid was unsuccessful because the butcher was about to sacrifice a large bull when we arrived. The qurban was expected to be slightly more difficult given the size of the bull and it required a few men to restrain it as the prayers for the ceremony begin. We left before the ceremony began but I was glad to have experienced at least part of the ceremony.
The celebration of Eid ul-Adha spans over three days where the qurban ceremony and visits to family and friends’ homes are continuous. On the last day of Eid, Professor Asim Khwaja invited two of this Research Fellows from EPod, Gabby and German, as well as me to his family home for Eid lunch. As it happens, Professor Khwaja’s family was due to perform the qurban ceremony that afternoon before the last sunset of Eid.
I had the opportunity to witness the whole ceremony, albeit with mixed feelings. The ceremony itself was religiously significant, yet it was unsettling to see the goat that we were just feeding and taking pictures with, to be slaughtered and skinned. Experiencing the celebrations of Eid ul-Adha in Pakistan has given me a new perspective of Islam, even though I have grown up in a Muslim majority country.
