Eid Mubarak: The one with the sheep

This week, Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha, or as I like to call it, "The one with the sheep".

It's a traditional sacrifice story which is shared in all three religions of the book (Christianity, Judaism and Islam). Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, is called upon to sacrifice what is most dear to him, in this case, his son. At the ultimate moment, God declares that Abraham has accomplished his duty by his intention to sacrifice his son and replaces said son with a sheep.

And then there was a feast with the sacrificial lamb as the centerpiece.

For more on this, check out The Ismaili's writeup on the Festival of Sacrifice.

For Muslims, this is kind of the Thanksgiving equivalent. Coincidentally, the lunar and solar calendars matched up this year so that Eid al-Adha fell around American Thanksgiving. Now, we've already been through all the gazillions of things I'm thankful for, but in honour of the sheep, here's another:

I am thankful for life. With its ups and downs, confusions, tears and all, there's nothing more precious to me than life. Especially when you truly take the time to enjoy the little things. Oh, and giggle a lot. Which I do. A lot.

On that note... Eid Mubarak, Happy (American) Thanksgiving, and may the Christmas-Hanukkah-Kushiali holiday season begin!