Prices of sheep, goats and bulls have seen increament as muslims in Ethiopia prepare to celebrate the 1, 440 Eid Al Adha on Sunday.
Knowing the demands of buyers, traders have brought bigger and horny cattle to the market since Monday.
They however command higher price according to a tour of the markets by APA’s correspondent who observed that a medium sized sheep is priced at 4000 birr ($142) while a bull goes for 22,000 birr ($785).
This represented a 25 percent increase from last year’s prices of sheep and bull, which are required to be slaughtered by Muslims who can afford them.
Eid Al Adha and Eid Al fetir are the big festivities in the Islamic calender, the former deriving from the tradition of Ibrahim who was put under a test by God to sacrifice his son.
According to Islamic tradition, as he was about to slaughter his eldest son, God had sent him a sheep in his place.
As a reenactment of this tradition, Ethiopia’s 40 million Muslims are enjoined to slaughter a ram, a goat or a bull if they can afford it every year.
Fuad Kalifa, an Ethiopian Muslim in Addis Ababa and a journalist by profession said sheep which will be sacrificed for the holiday must be big in size, horned and free from any illness.
More than 10,000 Ethiopians left for Jeddah this year to perform the hajj and will be marking the Eid Al Adha in the holy city before their return home days later.
A week before the celebration of Eid Al Adha, young Muslim businessmen leave for their home regions to mark the day with their parents and elders, exchanging gifts including clothes.
On the eve of Eid Al Adha, Ethiopian Muslims spend the night in mosques attending prayer sessions and disperse on the break of dawn after mass prayers.
MG/as/APA