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RegisterPosted by: ivor
« on: March 01, 2025, 02:51:50 am »
I think the great majority of the population of Morocco / Western Sahara are believers, not infidels.
I was referring to the Christian visitors...
I was referring to the Christian visitors...
Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: February 28, 2025, 05:37:39 am »I think the great majority of the population of Morocco / Western Sahara are believers, not infidels.
But this year, being the seventh without rain, might be the last year of drought:
"You shall sow for seven years... Then there shall follow seven hungry years... Then there will come a year of abundant rain." KORAN. Surah of Joseph. 12:47
"Behold, there come seven years of great plenty.... And there shall arise after them seven years of famine. GENESIS 41 29:30.
But this year, being the seventh without rain, might be the last year of drought:
"You shall sow for seven years... Then there shall follow seven hungry years... Then there will come a year of abundant rain." KORAN. Surah of Joseph. 12:47
"Behold, there come seven years of great plenty.... And there shall arise after them seven years of famine. GENESIS 41 29:30.
Posted by: ivor
« on: February 28, 2025, 02:47:10 am »Very surprising news.
The King has just enjoined the people not to perform the sacrifice of Eid el Adha this year, because we are in the seventh year of drought, so that pasture area and sheep numbers are greatly declining while prices are greatly increasing.
This seems to be alike unto cancelling Christmas or Easter in a Christian country
The holiday will be very different. What will people do?
Sacrifice if Infidels??
Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: February 27, 2025, 04:36:25 pm »Very surprising news.
The King has just enjoined the people not to perform the sacrifice of Eid el Adha this year, because we are in the seventh year of drought, so that pasture area and sheep numbers are greatly declining while prices are greatly increasing.
This seems to be alike unto cancelling Christmas or Easter in a Christian country
The holiday will be very different. What will people do?
The King has just enjoined the people not to perform the sacrifice of Eid el Adha this year, because we are in the seventh year of drought, so that pasture area and sheep numbers are greatly declining while prices are greatly increasing.
This seems to be alike unto cancelling Christmas or Easter in a Christian country
The holiday will be very different. What will people do?
Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: June 17, 2024, 05:13:46 pm »Young Mohamed helps out. (Last year.)
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Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: June 17, 2024, 09:32:10 am »Warning! Not for those sensitive about animal slaughter.
Well, I'm learning more things I didn't know about Eid el Adha, (the Festival of the Sacrifice) (or Eid Kebir) , some quite surprising.
My companion had bought a sheep (for 3500 dirhams) which was kept in the riad (Arabic for courtyard) of his family house.
Today, Monday, which is the day of Eid el Adha, my companion, his nephew and some neighbours held the animal by it's legs while one of them slit her throat. This could be done only after the King had slaughtered a sheep - as reported on TV.
The men removed the skin and fleece, and severed the head and hooves which go to another place for extraction of the eatable parts such as the inside cheeks, tongue, eyes, etc. The head is cleft in twain for the purpose.
Back in the house, the women clean the dead animal, cut out the interior edibles, and carve out the meat parts.
No part will be eaten until the day after the slaughter.
This is all special for this one day of the year. Normally, meat is bought from a butcher ready slaughtered.
What else can I say?
Well, I'm learning more things I didn't know about Eid el Adha, (the Festival of the Sacrifice) (or Eid Kebir) , some quite surprising.
My companion had bought a sheep (for 3500 dirhams) which was kept in the riad (Arabic for courtyard) of his family house.
Today, Monday, which is the day of Eid el Adha, my companion, his nephew and some neighbours held the animal by it's legs while one of them slit her throat. This could be done only after the King had slaughtered a sheep - as reported on TV.
The men removed the skin and fleece, and severed the head and hooves which go to another place for extraction of the eatable parts such as the inside cheeks, tongue, eyes, etc. The head is cleft in twain for the purpose.
Back in the house, the women clean the dead animal, cut out the interior edibles, and carve out the meat parts.
No part will be eaten until the day after the slaughter.
This is all special for this one day of the year. Normally, meat is bought from a butcher ready slaughtered.
What else can I say?
Posted by: Plagosus
« on: June 10, 2024, 05:15:01 pm »Fiacre? Is that a hired horse and cart?
It is a horse and carriage like this one: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-horse-carriages-on-beachfront-promenade-sousse-sousse-governorate-27958556.html
Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: June 10, 2024, 02:16:25 pm »I've rarely seen camels on sale in Morocco, although one passes herds of them, and camel meat is on sale in the local market - so I don't know how the animals are bought and sold.
Fiacre? Is that a hired horse and cart? Here, one sees donkeys used as personal transport or as pack animals, not often pulling a cart. And rarely a horse and cart.
In the weekly open-air market I mentioned, there was every sort of mechanical transport. The most startling sight was four live sheep tied to a roof-rack. I would like to take photos but the market was crowded and the local culture is that you don't take photos of people.
Over the years I've found myself travelling with live sheep a few times. Once the sheep was in the hold under the bus (I was in the passenger compartment!) Another time, in the Ameln Valley, I was in the front passenger seat of an unofficial taxi - an ancient Renault estate car (station wagon); the driver stopped to pick up a woman and two sheep. The sheep travelled behind the back seat. I've also travelled in the back of a Transit van (minivan in USA speak) which had a grille to separate humans from other species.
Fiacre? Is that a hired horse and cart? Here, one sees donkeys used as personal transport or as pack animals, not often pulling a cart. And rarely a horse and cart.
In the weekly open-air market I mentioned, there was every sort of mechanical transport. The most startling sight was four live sheep tied to a roof-rack. I would like to take photos but the market was crowded and the local culture is that you don't take photos of people.
Over the years I've found myself travelling with live sheep a few times. Once the sheep was in the hold under the bus (I was in the passenger compartment!) Another time, in the Ameln Valley, I was in the front passenger seat of an unofficial taxi - an ancient Renault estate car (station wagon); the driver stopped to pick up a woman and two sheep. The sheep travelled behind the back seat. I've also travelled in the back of a Transit van (minivan in USA speak) which had a grille to separate humans from other species.
Posted by: ivor
« on: June 10, 2024, 02:54:28 am »(Apparently they no longer sell livestock at the camel market.)
Perhaps cigarettes?
Let's hope Plag doesn't get the hump at that comment.
Posted by: David M. Katz
« on: June 09, 2024, 03:57:32 pm »(Apparently they no longer sell livestock at the camel market.)
Perhaps cigarettes?
Posted by: Plagosus
« on: June 08, 2024, 04:16:10 pm »In the 1970s we bought a sheep for a family at the Sousse camel market. It cost ten dinars. It was transported home in a fiacre.
(Apparently they no longer sell livestock at the camel market.)
(Apparently they no longer sell livestock at the camel market.)
Posted by: Emlyn Morgan
« on: June 07, 2024, 05:15:14 pm »I had a glass of milk outside a cafe down on the lower promenade not long ago. (I'd had enough wine with my lunch, so I didn't go to the bar. ) The sun set out of a clear sky into a calm sea. No green flash. Then the orange / red afterglow along the sea horizon and in the sky.
I wasn't thinking about what stars I might see later as the sky would darken. I wasn't thinking about the moon. But suddenly there she was. The first sliver of the new moon following the sun into the ocean.
So it is a new month. The first day of Dhu'l-Hijjah in the year 1445. This means that the religious authorities in Fes can calculate the date of Eid Kebir. Probably 17th June in the international calendar.
My smartphone already confirms the date. How did the lords and masters of the Internet know? Did they just observe the crescent moon, as well?
Why is it important? Well the bars will close for several days, so I have to stock up! Also bread - the bakers will take a few days holiday. And meat - the butchers will take a long holiday because every family will kill a sheep, and will have plenty of meat, not needing to visit a butcher for a long while.
I went up to a weekly open-air market up in the hills on Thursday. The market was exceptionally busy, especially the livestock area. Hundreds of sheep on offer at around 4000 - 5000 dirhams. You take it home, maybe by taxi or bus. More often by pick-up truck. You feed it until the day of Eid, when you slit its throat and hang it up for the blood to drain. Ninety percent of families will slaughter, skin and butcher the animal themselves. If you commission a butcher to come, he'll charge 200 dirhams.
Goodness. I remember posting a picture here last year. The years go by!
.
I wasn't thinking about what stars I might see later as the sky would darken. I wasn't thinking about the moon. But suddenly there she was. The first sliver of the new moon following the sun into the ocean.
So it is a new month. The first day of Dhu'l-Hijjah in the year 1445. This means that the religious authorities in Fes can calculate the date of Eid Kebir. Probably 17th June in the international calendar.
My smartphone already confirms the date. How did the lords and masters of the Internet know? Did they just observe the crescent moon, as well?
Why is it important? Well the bars will close for several days, so I have to stock up! Also bread - the bakers will take a few days holiday. And meat - the butchers will take a long holiday because every family will kill a sheep, and will have plenty of meat, not needing to visit a butcher for a long while.
I went up to a weekly open-air market up in the hills on Thursday. The market was exceptionally busy, especially the livestock area. Hundreds of sheep on offer at around 4000 - 5000 dirhams. You take it home, maybe by taxi or bus. More often by pick-up truck. You feed it until the day of Eid, when you slit its throat and hang it up for the blood to drain. Ninety percent of families will slaughter, skin and butcher the animal themselves. If you commission a butcher to come, he'll charge 200 dirhams.
Goodness. I remember posting a picture here last year. The years go by!
.