Bull slaughtering festival

[Riftvalley]

Ignore the guys title which is tribalist and insinuates people are worshiping bulls, this is still an intriguing practice.

It is a yearly event in which a bull is walked to the seaside to be slaughtered. Quran is read etc….Must be an old practice. Wonder if there are more Somali rituals linked to cows (especially in the South?).

@Shimbiris
@NidarNidar
@alchemist

 

[NidarNidar]

Good find, the Afar also practice something similar, they make sacrifices in times of drought.

"Afar people who made a sacrifice ina dry river. Assaita area Ethiopia. I think there was something magic in the ceremony as my guides were very embarrassed when i shot..If anyone knows..."

 

[Bursalah]

Seems like a long storied tradition surrounding July(sabbuux). The book stars seasons and weather by muusa galaal page 48 explains;


“The third important datum in the weather lore calculations is the occurrence of the Somali month of sabbuux (in Arabic, rajab). It is always hoped that the second day of sabbuux will fall on a Friday. If so, then all men can count on a prosperous year, and may slaughter animals for food at any time.

If, however, the third day of sabbuux is a Friday, instead of the second, then it is believed that the gu rains will be delayed for ten or twenty days.


“Sabbuux Jimce laba ka weydaa wankaa qalad leh”

“If the second of sabbuux does not fall on Friday One’s fattened ram must be slaughtered.”


Ram meat will last about ten days —three days for the meat, and seven days for the fat, the ghee, and the dry provisions bought from the village for the price of the ram’s skin. If the fourth day of this month falls on a Friday, the rain may be delayed for an entire month. In this case, the nomad is obliged to slaughter his male burden camel: (awrkaa-qalad or hayin-qalad)
—
the meat of this will last throughout the expected month of drought. If, finally, Friday does not occur until the fifth, sixth or seventh day of sabbuux, even worse calamities are in store. The nomads await diin iyo dameer qalad, meaning the time when the forbidden meat of the tortoise and the donkey will have to be eaten to ensure survival in the long period of drought expected. It is therefore always hoped that the month of sabbuux should begin on a Thursday, so that the crucial second day should be on a Friday. Since the calculation of Somali Lunar Months is not quite the same as those of the Arabic, it may be helpful to give a comparative table of names;


Somali name | Arabic Name
Dago | Muxaram (30 days)
Bil-dhurro-hore | Safar (29 days)
Bil-dhurro-dambe | Rabiic al Awal (30 days)
Rajal-hore | Rabiic al Thaani (29 days)
Rajal-dhexe | Jamaad al Awal (30 days)
(For beliefs about SABBUUX in the Somali agricultural regions, see page 74.)

Rajal-Dambe | Jamaad al Thaani (29 days)
Sabbuux | Rajab (30 days)
Waabberiis | Shaebaan (29 days)
Soon | Ramadaan (30 days)
Soon-fur | Shawaal (29 days)
Sidataal | Dulqaeda (30 days)
Arrafo | Dul-xija (29 days)


The number of days ascribed to the Arabic lunar months is not invariable. A month generally assumed to be a Kabiisha month (i.e. 30 days) can have only 29 days. The Somali lunar month is either a Qundhalad month (i.e. 30 days) or a Toomman month (29 days). In Somali weather predicting, the incidence of Toomman on two of the months is taken as a sign of a bad year. These are the seventh and eighth months, sabbuux and waabberiis. In years when sabbuux is a Toomman month, there will not only be drought but also widespread disease amongst camels. This month is in fact called “the month of camels”, when young female goats are slaughtered as a sacrifice to the herds on the 9th day of the month. waabberiis likewise portends an evil year if it has only 29 days; but when it has 30 days, the omens of prosperity are more powerful than any other astronomical or calendrical phenomena, and will outweigh all other portents for evil, even in combination.”


Tldr; it’s gonna rain lots so we’re good, eat up!!!