Hari Raya Haji

So guess what yesterday was... Public Holiday!!! haha I know all you Westerners are probably thinking "What is with all these public holidays? Didn't they just have one last week?" Don't be jealous!!

I think I mentioned in one of the my other posts that each of the major religious groups here can pick one or two of their religious holidays and designate it as a public holiday. Well yesterday was Hari Raya Haji, an Islamic holiday.

I am not sure how much you guys know about this day, but I believe it's purpose is to celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son (whom they believe is Ishmael) in obedience to God. Of course, before Abraham could do that, God provided the animal to sacrifice instead. I believe it also marks the end of the time of pilgrimage to Mecca. Well anyway, this is a day in which animal sacrifices are customarily made and over the weekend, over 4,000 goats were brought into Singapore for that purpose. 4,000!!! 

I have absolutely no idea how or where all these goats were sacrificed...and every single on of them was intended for that purpose. I mean, there is no way the temples around here would even be able to hold that many people, right? And it's not like yard space is abundant around here either. I really have no idea where this all took place.

Of course, I spent my day shopping with the family...surprise surprise. haha We ate at a German restaurant that I actually enjoyed more than I thought I would, and then we saw a movie.

Oh, side note about the movie:
The movie we saw was Tower  Heist. It was pretty funny, but with Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller I expected nothing less. During one part, the concierge of the Tower (the Tower staff are the main characters) produces a bunch of red flowers and informs Ben Stiller's character that, as it is Chinese New Year, he has gotten the flowers for one of their Asian residents. He also insists that he must say something nice to  her or else she might have a bad year. He then proceeds to present her with flowers when she arrives in the building lobby and to address her in Chinese. There were no English subtitles, so I have absolutely no idea what he said, but all the Singaporeans in the theatre (many of whom speak Chinese) all started laughing, so I have to assume it was funny. That is when the bizarreness of seeing a movie where the majority of the people around you actually understand the Chinese struck me, and I couldn't help but laugh too.
Of course what I found odd and somewhat funny was that the movie was set for sometime in November, but Chinese New Year is not until closer to February.

Back to my topic of Public Holidays....
No need to be jealous, my lovely American friends and family. There are no more public holidays that I am aware of here until Christmas, by which time I should be back in the States. You guys get Veterans Day soon, then Thanksgiving after that.