Today is the start of our six-day long Eid Al Adha holiday in Saudi Arabia. This is the second of the two Eids among Muslims, the first being Eid Al Fitr.

The story of Eid Al Adha is very familiar even to non-Muslims. In translation, this Eid means Festival of Sacrifice to commemorate the sacrifices of Abraham particularly his willingness to kill his son as a sacrifice to God. (While the Holy Bible narrates in Genesis 22 that the son was Isaac, Muslims believe the sacrificial son to be Ishmael).

During this period, Muslims slaughter a sheep or a goat and divides the meat in three to give to the family, friends and the poor.

Long leave, lotsa plans.

I have no plans to travel far this holiday, but I'm hoping to:

• Thoroughly, in my mom's fashion, clean my room (by in my mom's fashion, I mean dust and mop those hard-to-reach nook and crannies of my room);
• Overhaul my blog (but won't implement it until after PEBA);
• Photoshoot Alkhobar (for my December posts);
• Gather with friends (who I never get to see although we only live a few blocks away from each other);
• Install and decorate our Christmas tree (yey, it's Christmas!);
• Watch all those movies that I'm yearning to see.

Lots of plans which I hope I could really implement. This is the last of our long holidays in Saudi. (We don't have any Christmas break and we even have work during Christmasses and New Year. Not this year though because the December 25th and 1st January fell on a Friday -- our normal day off in Saudi).

Happy Eid, everyone!

I leave you with this Rembrandt painting of The Sacrifice of Abraham. Let us contemplate what the photo means to us.