Being a guest of Nina’s family, and always learning and respecting their beliefs, I was happy to participate again. We got lucky with the weather. Rain sprinkled us just a bit at the beginning and at the end, but for most of the 40 minute open-air prayer we were fine.
I wore a sarong this time, like most of the traditional folks, and went up front with Nina’s dad. It wasn’t quite as crowded as Idul Fitri was, and there was less hanging around afterwards- but there were places to go.

Idul Adha is the holiday whereby Muslims who can afford it must offer a goat or cow to the poor. Like the Hajj (trip to Mecca), it’s a once-in-a-lifetime religious requirement, but many people offer several times or every year.
For many poor Indonesians, this is the only time of the year they can eat meat. (out of their price range the rest of the year).

Next stop: Hewan Korban (sacrificing the animals).
The story behind sacrificing goats is shared in the Old Testament with Christians and Jews. As Nina’s dad explained, this tradition comes from God’s order to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a demonstration of his faith and obedience to God. Seeing that Abraham was indeed about to go through with the killing of his own son, God intervened to save Isaac’s life, and ordered Abraham to sacrifice a goat instead, and share the meat with the people.

Personally, I’ve never seen the whole process between having a living cow or goat in front of me, and then eating sate (or hamburger) later that day.
Now that I have, I’m thankful for being spared the in-between parts 99% of the time.

Anyways, what made this so interesting was seeing it take place in the open at most mosques and public schools (in the predominantly Muslim countryside of Java anyways), with kids and families standing around watching and participating in one way or another.