Due to being on break and staying on break for an extended period, I have more time to read these short stories rather than postponing them until weeks later. This post will be about The Feast of the Sacrifice from Cairo House.
This story occurs right when the author lands in Cairo. She talks about her most recent happy memory in Cairo before she left for France. She was having trouble sleeping, so she went to her picture book and recalled the story about having the feast when she was nine years old. The feast itself involved three animals: a ram, a sheep, and a lamb. The sacrifice wasn’t allowed to be seen by young children, yet the author was determined to learn more about what actually happened in the ritual. After being put to bed, she left her room to see the ritual. The ritual was in the shed by her house, and she saw the ram getting killed by the cook. She was caught, but she doesn’t really remember what happened. The story ends with her finding out that the cook saw her and started screaming. This resulted in the ritual perhaps failing because nobody young should see the ritual take place. She felt bad for potentially ruining the ritual, which is why her photo she found at the beginning of the story was one of the last good old days.
This story deals with tradition and I really learned a few things. After reading this story, there were many words italicized. I decided to look up what an agha was because I’ve never heard of that word. After looking up that word in terms of an Arabic manner, I found out that agha means “honorable person” in Arabic. Also, I learned how importance certain cultures take tradition and rituals. Personally, my family doesn’t have many traditions to a level as this story does. We have holiday traditions, but nothing compared to this ritual. The last page of the story truly reflects the importance of rituals in the author’s culture. She felt horrible after sneaking in the shed to see the ritual take place. The last line of the story explains that her event as a nine year old still affects her to present day. I didn’t really think how some rituals can impact people in other cultures than the rituals in our society. One last thing, I also liked that analogy of having a picture book like a deck of cards. As we are somewhat trapped in our respected homes, I’ve been looking at old pictures from high school due to boredom. We try to live in the moment like most people should, but it’s always good to reflect on the past memories and how they have impacted us as individuals.