Ethnic & Religious Holidays

A description of the holidays and the type of goat required is below.

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Holiday
2015
2016
New Year’s Day 1/1 1/1
Epiphany 1/6 1/6
Eidul-Adha Festival of Sacrifice 9/13 9/12
Muharramn – Islamic New Year 10/15 10/1
Mawlid al-Nabi – Prophet’s Birthday 1/3 12/11
Western Roman Easter 3/5 3/27
Eastern Orthodox Easter 3/12 5/1
Cinco de Mayo 5/5 5/5
Independence Day 7/4 7/4
Start of Ramadan – Month of Fasting 6/18 6/5
Diwali 11/11 10/30
Eid ul-Fitr – Festival of Fast Breaking 7/18 7/4
Passover / Pesach 3/4 – 3/11 4/22/30
Rosh Hashanah 9/14 10/2-4
Chanukkah 12/7 – 12/14 12/24-1/1
Christmas 12/25 12/25

 

Description of the Holidays

Easter: The traditional Italian market is for a suckling kid weighing 18-35 lbs live. However there is growing demand for larger suckling kids, market kids, and curry goats by various ethnic families who also celebrate Easter.

Christmas and New Year: Christmas and New Year are the holidays when suckling kids are popular. However, does must be bred when the days are long (outside the normal breeding season which is Fall) to produce Christmas suckling. The scarcity of young kids may result in excellent prices and more relaxed weight restrictions.

Eid ul-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice: The traditional lamb or goat for this Muslim holiday commemorating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael in obedience to Allah is a yearling or “one tooth” goat. “One tooth” refers to the fact that yearling goats have one set of adult teeth. However, large market kids/lambs and older goats/sheep are also used. The goat/lamb is larger than goats/ lambs used at Ramadan because traditionally some of the meat is to be shared with the customer’s extended family and some is to be distributed to the needy. Because it symbolizes family’s religious commitment, the animal must be blemish free. For some Muslims this means it should be healthy with no broken horns, open wounds, or lameness. For others, it should not be castrated nor have even a torn ear.

Muharram/Islamic New Year: Mutton is one of the dishes for this holiday. There is not restriction of age or weight for this day except the animal should be healthy and good looking.

Chanukkah: The Jewish festival of rededication also known as festival of lights. It is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of Jewish month of Kislev which is ninth month of the twelve month Jewish calendar. In the Jewish community the meat prepared by Kosher way of slaughtering is preferred.

Caribbean holidays: Several independence days and “Crifests” occur in the fall. The traditional dish is “curried goat” from intact market kids or bucks accompanied by a goat soup using the rest of the goat carcass. Many people hold the opinion that the smell of the male goat improves the flavor and potency of the soup. However, some families prefer castrated market kids or females.

Cinco de Mayo and other Hispanic holidays: Some Mexican families desire a small cabrito kid to celebrate Mexico’s independence from Spain. Others prefer a large market kid or yearling barbecued whole over a pit. Seco de Chivo or goat stew is a popular dish for other Latin American cultures for holidays such as Christmas. The Hispanic market for goats is for 20 to 35 lb live weight milk-fed kids for cabrito, and larger animals for seco de chivo.