There Will Be Blood

In Bangladesh, it is customary to sacrifice a goat (or cow if you're crazy rich) to bless your child's birth. (For a reference on this custom, I suggest the Bible. Look for a guy named Abraham) Last time I was there, I wanted to do it all: I wanted to eat everything, see the country, go to masjid, discover the joys of cricket (until I learned a match lasted 5 days), catch an exotic disease, everything. So, when it was time to bless my child, I wanted to truly experience it, not run up into my room and hide until the goat curry hit the table.

So, the Imam from the local masjid came over to Tania's Boro Phupu's house (her eldest aunt) with two guys. He eyed me suspiciously, and Tania's cousin introduced me as an "American Muslim." He seemed to dislike my name until given my Muslim name, at which point we were cool. He then blesses the goat, and they sacrifice it. The two guys then butcher this thing in about five minutes and divide up the meat into thirds. Not roughly thirds; exactly thirds: they bring a seriously old-school, Biblical era scale. One third goes to the family, one third goes to the community, and one third goes to the poor. I'm not fully clear on what happened to the skull, but I think it was included in the calculations. If you've ever folded up a letter to mail, you'll know that its particularly difficult to divide something into thirds, particularly if there's a skull involved.

That night, Tania's family ate goat.

This brings to mind a good family story. When Tania's younger sister Sonia was little, she attended the sacrifice of a cow with Tania's older brother Latif. At the point of sacrifice, Latif pushed Sonia into the cow. She didn't eat beef for five years after. What brought her back to beef? A Burger King commercial. She is an avid burger eater to this day.

So, we were over at Tania's parents this past weekend, discussing the adoption of the twins, and started discussing the sacrifice for this adoption. Tania's mother smiled and said, "you do know that you have to sacrifice four goats this time, right?"

Uh, no. What? I don't get it. It was one last time, so I can see two, but four?

Yes, four, she explained. It's two goats per boy (having been a boy, I can see how they would require extra blessing).

So I guess that's what we'll do. Latif, by the way, is going to sponsor one of the goats. If any else wants to buy a goat, let me know. This time, Tania's mother is organizing a big meal at the orphanage for the kids and staff with all that meat plus some additional food. I think that's a great idea. I don't think I'll attend the sacrifice this time, but I would love to watch those kids eat. I don't eat goat.