Education - Publications - Religious Slaughter
Ethnic Holiday Calendar - revised 2007 by tatiana Stanton
for holidays where lamb or goat meat is part of the traditional holiday feast
Western or Roman Easter
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April 8, 2007 |
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March 23, 2008 |
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April 12, 2009 |
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April 4, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - 30-45 lbs live weight, milk fed and fat.
Type of goat wanted - Fleshy, milk fed kids with relatively light colored meat, 3 months old or younger. Suckling kids weighing less than 20 lbs are generally disappointing to buyers due to low meat to bone ratios and high carcass drying losses now that they must be marketed with the hide off. Kids gaining less than 10 lbs per month or 1/3rd pound per day after accounting for birth weight are generally not fleshy enough to be considered prime. Prime Easter kids are generally gaining at least 1/2 lb daily. There generally is a slight price (per lb of live weight) penalty for kids weighing over 40 lbs. Acceptable weights generally range from 20 to 50 lbs with 30 lbs considered optimum by most buyers.
Easter or Greek Easter
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April 8, 2007 |
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April 27, 2008 |
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April 19, 2009 |
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April 4, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - 40-55 lbs live weight, milk fed and fat.
Type of goat wanted - Similar to Western Easter kids. A slightly larger milk fed kid (i.e. around 35 lbs) is considered optimum.
Passover
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April 3-10, 2007 |
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April 20-27, 2008 |
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April 9-16, 2009 |
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March 30-April 6, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - 30-55 lbs, milk fed and fat.
Rosh Hashanah
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Sept 12-13, 2007 |
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Sept 29-30, 2008 |
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Sept 18-19, 2009 |
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Sept 8-9, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - Forequarters from weaned lambs 60-110 lbs.
Navadurgara or Navratra Dashara or Dassai
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Oct 12-20, 2007 |
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Sept 30-Oct 8, 2008 |
This is a Hindu holiday honoring the goddess Durga. Goats are generally slaughtered from the 7th to the 10th day of the holiday after which families meet together and celebrate with curried goat while receiving family blessings. Female goats are not acceptable for this holiday. Relatively tender male goats are generally used. Size of carcass depends on number of people expected to be fed. Weaned, market kids or yearling wethers are most in demand.
Start of Ramadan - can vary by a day depending on the actual sighting of the moon.
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September 13, 2007 |
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September 2, 2008 |
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August 22, 2009 |
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August 11, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted -Weaned market lamb 60-80 lbs.
Type of goat wanted - male and female kids with all their milk teeth (i.e. not older than @ 12 months). Males can be whole or castrated. Overly fat kids are discriminated against. Optimum live weight is about 60 lbs but weaned kids from 45 - 120 lbs. are accepted by different buyers.
Id al Fitr - The Festival of the Breaking of the Ramadan Fast
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October 13, 2007 |
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October 2, 2008 |
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September 22, 2009 |
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September 11, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - same as for Ramadan.
Type of goat wanted - same as for Ramadan.
Id al Adha - The Festival of Sacrifice
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Dec 20-23, 2007 |
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Dec 8-11, 2008 |
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Nov 28-Dec 1, 2009 |
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Nov 17-20, 2010 |
Type of lamb wanted - 60-80 lbs. However, heavier old crop lambs are also in demand and will frequently command the same price as new crop lambs.
Type of goat wanted - Prefer yearlings (i.e. animals with one set of adult teeth) that are blemish free. Large kids 60 - 100 lbs also in demand. Animals with broken horns, open wounds, torn ears or physical unsoundnesses generally do not meet the criteria. In some cases, castrated animals or lambs with docked tails are frowned upon.
Other holidays when goat meat is commonly consumed include Christmas, the July 4th weekend, and the numerous Caribbean holidays in August - Carnival, Carifest, Jamaican Independence Day, etc.
The Christmas market is for milk fed kids and lambs. These young animals are rare, because they must be produced by out-of-season breeding in May for October births. Kids and lambs as light as 18 lbs may be readily accepted.
Goats for July 4th weekend are animals suitable for barbecue, generally cabrito kids for small parties and weaned market kids and yearling bucks, does, or wethers for large celebrations.
Optimal goats for the Caribbean holidays are young, smelly 60-80 lb bucks. However, older animals of all sexes are often in demand and customers may prefer to buy them rather than pay the extra price for prime young bucks.
The Chinese market for goat according to Frank Pinkerton, PhD, is "limited to the six colder months. The preferred weight range is 60 to 80 pounds live, and goats in good health are required."
The Hispanic market for goat is for 15 to 30 lb live wt suckling kids for cabrito, and large weaned market kids for seco de chivo and barbecues. It is especially strong in some regions during Cinco de Mayo (May 5th), Mexico's Independence Day.
Cull does and bucks are also in demand for the curried goat market and for prison contracts.
More information on popular holidays is available on the web at http://www.interfaithcalendar.org or in our "remote" calendar.
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