Nahed Nassr keeps up with Islam's most carnivorous holiday Eid Al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, is among the best preserved religious occasions in Egyptian society. Other feasts have paled by comparison. It marks the moment when the Prophet Ibrahim, having followed God's will to slaughter his son Ismail -- the Arabs' ancestor and the Abrahamic figure most forcefully claimed by Islam -- is at the last minute instructed to spare him and slaughter a ram instead. It also coincides with the Hajj, the ritual pilgrimage to Mecca, which a Muslim is supposed to undertake at least once in his or her life. For most people, however, what the feast involves is an exchange of meat. Every Muslim who can afford it should sacrifice a healthy animal -- if not a sheep, this, udhiya, is usually a calf or camel -- one third of which he gives to the needy, one third to his relatives, keeping one third for himself. (Alternatively, a Muslim may contribute the price of the animal or simply buy meat to give out to the poor). The ritual is performed, preferably by the man of the house, just after the Eid prayers, by both pilgrims and Muslims at large. In the face of inflation many middle-class families have learned to chip in to buy a single water-buffalo calf or camel, but the ritual of gathering around the family slaughter remains an essential aspect of life for Ismailia-born Khaled Horeib, among many others across the class spectrum. "The udhiya was the most sacred occasion for everyone in the family. My father would buy the sheep two months before the Eid, and my siblings and I would have a nice time feeding it. Then, when the time came, my brother or I would have to do the slaughter; my mother and sisters took care of the meat, and an important part of it was the delicious breakfast of sheep liver." It may have been hard to part with what, to all intents and purposes, became a pet -- and in this most brutal way. Yet Horeib fondly remembers the custom of staining the palms of the hands with the blood of the animal and making prints on the façade of the house: "a way to announce that we did our udhiya, and a source of pride". But for Horeib as for most others these are but memories. "In my first two years of marriage I would buy a sheep and keep it for one or two months in Ismailia where the whole family gathers for the Eid. I was slaughtering it myself, just like the old days. But with the price of meat going up all the time, we've taken to sharing a cow -- which gives more meat on the whole and keeps us all supplied for longer than if each of us slaughtered a sheep." Since his family members all slaughter, Horeib keeps two thirds of the meat; the rest, with his mother's counsel, he distributes to those who need it in Ismailia. Indeed, with too many people too busy to undertake the task themselves, charity associations have taken on the task of identifying and distributing meat to the poor. Ahmed Galal, a shopkeeper in Imbaba, depends on one such association. "I pay my share [in money] to the association two months before the Eid. All I have to do after that is wait for the big day: after the prayers, my two sons and I go to the slaughterhouse to watch the slaughter and take our share of the meat. Living in an apartment building in the city, it is difficult to find the right place to slaughter the animal, or tell a good butcher from the adventurers who appear on the day. The association solves all of these problems, saving effort and time and ensuring the meat will go to those who deserve it." The chairman of the Imbaba-based Zakat Al-Salam ("alms of peace") association, Yasser Suleiman, agrees: "we work with orphans, serving them in various ways; and one of our projects to organise zakat al-adha [the alms of the sacrifice] by proxy, prioritising orphans and the poor." Starting in 2002, the project applies the system of pilgrims, seven of whom will generally share an animal: "I started the project with six cows, three camels and about 20 sheep. Now we slaughter up to 50 cows and calves, five camels and maybe 60 sheep." Two-three months before the Eid, people start paying the association: LE810 for a camel share, LE995 for a cow or buffalo share; of the 30kg he paid for, each person receives 20kg. The rest goes to 729 families, each receiving three-six kg according to the number of family members. The ceremony takes place in a big tent where everyone is invited to watch the butchers at work -- and by afternoon the meat is fully distributed. Bigger, older associations -- Mustafa Mahmoud, Risala, Al-Orman -- undertake similar tasks on a much larger scale. The Mustafa Mahmoud association, for example, provides needy families with animals to fatten, after which it buys back the animals with zakat money; some 54,000 families benefited from the scheme in 2006 alone. Widows are employed in processing the meat for LE100 in addition to 3kg each, while Risala offers an optional home-delivery service to contributors. Unlike Zakat Al-Salam, which depends on leaflets and word of mouth, associations of this size employ websites and hotlines. Regardless of size, associations record the slaughter on video and share some of their meat with fellow associations. The proxy system has been sanctioned by the religious establishment. "They promote solidarity among Muslims," Sheikh Emad Effat of Dar Al-Iftaa says of the charity associations, "as well as providing people with a limited income with ways to obey God's orders in the face of inflation." In Islam, he says, any ritual can be performed by proxy unless this is explicitly prohibited; cows and camels are as good as sheep, even if the latter are canonically preferable. But Um Ahmed, buys 5kg of meat for the Eid from the butcher, simply because she can't afford the proxy system: "some people can only afford 1kg for the first day, but it's still worth it not to break the habit."
