Today is my fourth Eid al-Adha (known colloquially as l’3id Kbir) in Morocco.
Eid 2011 
Eid 2012 
Eid 2013
Each year, I’ve found that the rituals of this holiday remain largely consistent: a sheep is purchased, placed in the house, and everyone takes pictures with it; then, when the timing is right, the sheep is taken to the roof and killed. There is a swift and efficient disassembling of innards, which are distributed methodically into buckets, and the carcass is left to hang on the roof. The head is sent off to be roasted, and the liver and heart are boiled, wrapped in fat, grilled, and eaten. After having one…or several…kebabs, you then consider converting to vegetarianism to even out this one obnoxious day of meat consumption and nap through the middle of the day with your uncomfortably full belly.
This year followed the same trajectory of major events, but with a significant change: Mustapha and I decided to be grown-ass adults and purchase the sheep ourselves. This felt oddly monumental, like getting your own place or buying your own car instead of living with your parents and driving their car (not that I’ve ever done either of those childish things…….).
Since we’re in a new city, a single question hung over our decision to be adults: where can you even buy a sheep here? As fate would have it, about 60 flyers from a supermarket chain here in Morocco found their way under our door with the answer:
As it turns out, every 3id season, a makeshift tent pops up outside of each of the French supermarket chains here. Much in the spirit of Christmas tree lots, you can walk in, sort through the different brands of stock (that all have clearly-marked prices), select whichever one can fit in your living room and/or bathroom, and pay. No haggling necessary. No price gauging based on my very obvious foreigner status. We were even able to pay for our sheep with a credit card (this was all a great departure from 3id 2012 and our trip to the sheep souk in Marrakech, where Mustapha had to ask me to remain about 50ft away from him so that the prices wouldn’t get increased so much). So, we nabbed this beauty. And we put him in our bathroom– because where else would you keep your sheep?
Our poor sheep was not a huge fan of this decision. He escaped several times, and, when he was successfully locked inside, he came close to headbutting the door down.
So, this morning, we took our own sheep up onto our rooftop in the middle of Fes. It has a slightly different look than our 3ids past in Tameslouht– many more rooftops with a much larger collective cloud of sheepy-smoke clouding the skyline. And then the routine began.
3id mobarak sa3id to all– especially those experiencing their own first grown-ass 3ids.
