Celebrating 'Big Eid' for the first time
On July 4th at the Butchers Hall, Industry came together with the Livery for the first time ever to celebrate Eid al Adha, with over 80 Muslim stakeholders, government officials, Liverymen, shadow farming minister – Daniel Zeichner, and agri-food value chain representatives joining what is hoped to be the start of a new tradition.
Eid-al-Adha, also known as 'Big Eid', is the larger of the two main festivals of the Muslim calendar. Its focus is on giving and sharing, both within the family, local community and to global causes; remembering the willingness of Abraham to give up his son at God's command.
The event united those working in the ever-growing Halal sector of the meat industry, with the incredible Zara Mohammed, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain as the guest speaker.
We were reminded by Zara that 'food is a powerful way to break barriers and what you eat is an important part of the Muslim faith'. Herein lies the importance of this night, as the meat sector came together as one to celebrate with good food and great company, for a historic event which was supported by The Worshipful Company of Butchers, NFU and AHDB.
We dined on a fabulous culturally inspired meal of British lamb, donated by UK processors.
Muslim consumption of lamb is of great significance to UK sheep farmers, with halal-consuming households consuming 10 times more sheepmeat[1] than the general population, sitting down to a meal containing it more than once a week.
Eid-al-Adha is a festival which celebrates the sharing and giving of food, including meat, and money to the community and charitable causes. In honour of this tradition of giving, a cheque donation was presented by The Master, from the WCB charity to Islamic Relief UK in honour of the festival's tradition of charitable giving.
The atmosphere on the evening was excellent and the feedback from many attending our Hall for the first time was very positive. Given the success of the evening we will continue the new Livery tradition o celebrate Eid-al-Adha next year on Tuesday 25th June 2024.
Photo's of the 2023 event can be downloaded by clicking on this link.
[1] 60% of halal consumers eat sheepmeat more than once a week, compared with 6% of the general population – AHDB Consumer Insights Report 2020 https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/consumer-insights-demand-for-halal-meat