The goat’s last supper

Famous Bollywood stars such as Shah Rukh Khan or Aishwarya Rai line up at the market Jama Masjid for Goat shopping. At the ‘Bakra Bazaar’ (Goat market) goats are sold, which will be sacrificed on monday, 06.10.2014, to celebrate ‘Eid’, one of the most important religious holidays for Muslims (The feast reminds of Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, who could then sacrifice a lamb instead). The meat is kept for the own family and also given to friends and other family members.

Traders come from different states outside Delhi such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Each of them normally offers around 10-30 goats. While looking for the perfect one with my uncle Jagdish, we found out about the different criteria: weight, breed and health. The perfect goat should be in between 2-3 years old (apparently the meat is not that tasty anymore afterwards) and quite corpulent. We also observed people who checked their teeth to verify their actual age.

The best goats are decorated so that you can recognize their particular value. Some paint their horns or put flowers around the goat’s neck. Some also sell sheeps – but vendors told us that goat meat would be tastier.

The prices offered to us ranged from 5000 Rupees to 30.000 Rupees (65 Euro – 380 Euros).  According to the newspaper ‘Hinustantimes’ more than 1000 goats are sold at this marked in old Dilli every year. Today, we took at look at the Goat’s last supper and negotiated with the Goat owners.