Barcelona's Muslim communities celebrate the feast of the sacrifice this week
Barcelona's Muslim communities celebrate the feast of the sacrifice on Sunday, 16 June. The celebration is known colloquially as the “feast of the lamb” as it is customary to sacrifice lambs or other animals. In Arabic the celebration is known as ‘îd al-adhà, on other words, the “feast of the sacrifice’.
The celebration takes place on the tenth day of the last month in the Islamic calendar, coinciding with the Hajj, the pilgrimage made by Muslims to the city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. The event remembers the sacrifice of a lamb by Abraham, after God observed his obedience to him by being willing to sacrifice his son, as described in the Quran.
The celebration starts with the morning prayer. In Barcelona this mainly takes place in the communities’ own places of worship, but like on other occasions prayers are also held in some facilities thanks to collaboration between the Office for Religious Affairs, heads of Muslim communities and municipal territorial heads. The festival takes place in a festive and fraternal atmosphere. Muslim families then go to collect the lambs they have ordered from butchers (in Catalonia the animals have to be slaughtered in an abattoir), with the meat traditionally divided into three equal parts: one for the most underprivileged, one for friends and the third for the family themselves. Sacrificing a lamb is not obligatory, it is a prophetic custom (sunnah).
‘Îd mubârak for everybody in Barcelona and around the world this week celebrating ‘îd al-adhà!