Enjoying a Holiday Meal ... of Goat Liver

NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 21, 2007 — -- I had one of the better meals of my life today. It's a good thing I didn't know what it was before I ate it.

I spent the day in the narrow alleys of Old Delhi, the historic capital of India and the Muslim area of India's current capital, New Delhi. It is a poor neighborhood with a majestic mosque, more bicycle rickshaws than cars, and on this day, camels walking through the streets.

Today was the final day of Eid-ul-Zuha, one of the most widely celebrated festivals in the Muslim world. It commemorates the moment when Abraham agreed to sacrifice Isaac (Ishmael in the Koran); Allah allows Abraham's son to live, replacing him with a goat at the last moment.

After that day, animal sacrifice disappeared from the Abrahamic religions — the only sacrifice one needs to make is to God.

Except for today.

In the middle of Old Delhi, a normally nondescript dirt field becomes a goat market. Baby goats, adult goats, some decorated with colorful holiday tinsel, some looking a bit sickly — all for sale, some for as much as a few hundred dollars.

And right outside the goat market gates sits Cartis, who is selling knives for as little as 75 cents.

He says business is good. Why? Because Muslims are supposed to buy and kill the goats (or the camels) themselves — by hand. And so for 18 straight years, Cartis has spent his Eid's sharpening and selling on the side of the road.

"My knives are the best," he says, smiling.

I witnessed only one sacrifice today. A crowd had formed around a group of men holding down a camel. Violently, one of the men sawed away at the camel's neck. It eventually bled to death. No one arrived to clean up the mess.

The people who sell the goats have a good deal. The sacrificial animal must be in some way significant to the family, which today translates into pricey. Families are supposed to buy the best animal they could find, or afford.

"This holiday is about sacrificing for Allah," one seller told me. "Price is no object." Easy for him to say as he counted his money.