ABSTRACT
Very Early in the Morning of 11 June 1992, I stopped at a red light in an avenue in one of Paris's eastern suburbs. In the neighbouring car was a family of North African origin. A scene of daily life? Not quite, for in the back of the vehicle there lay a sheep, a rural animal which does not pass unnoticed in this urban setting. Today was the feast of ‘Id al-kabir, the Muslims’ ‘great festival’, also sometimes called the sheep festival on account of the ritual cutting of a sheep's throat which is performed in many families by the father in commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice. It takes place two lunar months and ten days after the end of the Ramadan fast.
