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Lahorites ready for celebration - LahoreEstate - 11-28-2009 03:56 AM
LAHORE - The Eid with all its true colours and festivities has descended in the provincial metropolis, as people have finalised arrangements to mark the religious occasion with traditional enthusiasm. A number of people adorned their goats, sheep, cows and camels with sacrificial animals seen tied up outside the houses.
This year, cows and camels have outnumbered the goats and sheep, as people were more interested in collective sacrifices, so trend to buy cows and camels picked the momentum up. They also continued the tradition of animals’ public display, which they bought for the ritual by taking them round in the neighbourhood. Children were also sighted playing with their sacrificial animals, as bells hanging around their necks sounded out the bugle of Eid festivities.
Different organisations including religious seminaries, NGOs and charitable institutions have come into action to get the skins of sacrificial animals as charity. They have displayed a number of banners on main roundabouts, roads and most populated localities to convince the people that nobody but they are the only deserving candidates.
Some companies have also displayed banners and install billboards offering that they are well resourced to slaughter animals on digital machines and deliver the meat at their clients’ doorsteps against nominal charges. They also offer to extend the services of collective sacrifice, getting popularity among the people due to affordability. As usual many seminaries, neighbourhood committees and mosques have also arranged joint sacrifices. Static advertisement is visible in various parts of the City, attracting citizens to contribute in sacrificing a cow by paying from Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,500 only.
Interestingly, this year camels’ sale has seen an increase. Many streets could be seen with camels decorated with colourful garlands. Only a few years back camel sacrifices were not commonplace in Lahore but nowadays people seem highly captivated to them.
Arrival of herds of goats and sheep in the City from various parts of the country reached its climax till late night on Friday. Other than the sale points of animals designated by the CDGL, streets and roads appeared flooded with sacrificial animals. Traders of cattle spread in different localities to sell the animals. Frequent scenes of bargaining could be watched out for most of the time. Usually people were not much interested to buy sacrificial animals through vendors. But, they haggled in a bid to evaluate the comparative prices.
The high price of goats has brought along this changing trend. Akram, a bystander at Bakra Mandi, said, “If I purchase a goat weighing 20 kg, then after sacrifice, I end up with only 10 or 12 kg of meat. I have a big family and a lot of relatives, giving them three or four pieces of meat is very embarrassing.” He added, “I have decided to go for joint-sacrifice of a cow. This way I will be free on Eid day because I will not have to search for a butcher. Finding a butcher on Eid day is a hard task.”
However, some people are only interested in sacrificing goats. “I know the prices of goats are ridiculously high but still people prefer goats because it is a matter of family prestige. Eid comes after a whole year and if I do not go for the best sacrifice then its quite shameful for me,” said Riaz, while shopping at a Samanabad stall.
“I will sacrifice last day so that the prices might go down a bit and then buy a goat.”
But butchers business might suffer. Mohammad Siddique, a butcher, says, “Over the years, our business has already suffered because of inflation. As far as this new service is concerned, I would only say that this concept is not new.
For the past few years, people have been bringing animals to my shop on the plea that at home it is very difficult to clean the blood and waste. They have just made it a commercial venture. Nonetheless, it is comparatively expensive.”
Here, a sociologist and professor at Punjab University, Uzma Mazhar says, “Yes, some of the things are not happening in our society as they used to be hundred years ago, but lifestyle is changing all over Pakistan, and traditions and culture do change when lifestyles transform. Now, we have small houses, we do not have servants, therefore, not everyone has the ability to fulfil the requirements that come with sacrifice baggage. Hence, it is not a matter of right, wrong, good or bad, it is simply to adapt to new needs.”
As IT is becoming a part of daily life, the trend of purchasing sacrificial animals through Internet has also picked popularity. A large number of websites offering goats, cows and camels appeared on Internet. These websites claimed that browsing for animals on the Internet was better than personally going to a cattle market. They also offered services to expatriate Pakistanis and one of their packages was that they would sacrifice an animal in Pakistan, with distributing its meat among the poor while sending pictures of live and sacrificed animal to the customers abroad
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Lahore/28-Nov-2009/Lahorites-ready-for-celebration/1