Got beef?: People jostle for meat at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Friday. The police slaughtered 24 cows and five goats as part of the Islamic Day of Sacrifice for 2,000 families in the neighborhood. (JP/Nurhayati)
Muslims across the nation observed the Day of Sacrifice on Friday morning by joining the Idul Adha massed prayers in mosques or squares and having their animals for sacrifice slaughtered for the meat to be distributed to the needy.
But as in the previous years, chaos again marred meat distribution in many places, including in Jakarta and in several regencies in Java.
In Mina, Saudi Arabia, pilgrims cast stones at walls representing the devil on the third day of the annual haj as Muslims begin Idul Adha, one of the most important holidays in the Islamic calendar.
Approximately 3 million pilgrims filed past three walls in the desert valley of Mina and pelted them with pebbles in a symbolic rejection of Satan’s temptations.
Skies were sunny and hot in the morning, after the haj opened with heavy rains on Wednesday that caused heavy flooding in the nearby Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, leading to the deaths of 83 people.
The first day of stoning also marks the start of Idul Adha when Muslims around the world slaughter sheep and cattle in remembrance of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son.
In Jakarta President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice President Boediono and several Cabinet ministers, along with thousands of people said their Idul Adha prayers at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque.
A number of foreign ambassadors also took part in the Idul Adha prayers at the mosque.
The mosque board said it would slaughter 20 cows, two of them donated by Yudhoyono and Boediono, and 232 goats on Friday night and distribute them in 7,000 packages on Saturday.
“SBY’s cow is the heaviest, weighing 1,350 kilograms while Boediono’s weighed 1,200 kilograms,” the board chairman, Zulkifli, said.
In Bantul, Yogyakarta, thousands flocked the sand dune area in the Parangtritis Beach in Kretek district to join the mass prayers held only half a kilometer away from the coast. Visitors came not only from the surrounding regions, but also from other regencies in the province.
“We have never performed the prayers by the sea. That is why we want to join the prayers today to have the feel of it,” said Wibowo of Kaliurang, Yogyakarta, some 40 kilometers to the north of the coast, who brought his whole family to the beach on Friday.
In Demak, Central Java, the traditional ritual Grebeg Besar was held, Friday, after the Idul Adha mass prayers, including a parade through the city’s main streets.
The procession started from the Demak City Hall and ended at the graveyard of Sunan Kalijaga, a famous Muslim preacher who spread Islamic teachings in Java Island during the first years of development of Islam in the region.
In West Sumatra, three different groups of Muslims celebrated the day of sacrifice on different dates.
The Tarekat Naqsyabandiyah followers celebrated Idul Adha a day earlier than most on Thursday.
Muhammadiyah and other majority Muslims observed it on Friday, while the Tarekat Sattariyah with some 100,000 followers across West Sumatra plan to observe Idul Adha this Saturday.
In Punggolaka penitentiary, Southeast Sulawesi, prisoners met and hugged their relatives after conducting Idul Adha prayers.
Syofiardi Bachyul Jb contributed to this story from Padang.
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