The Indonesian government banned all public celebrations of “Eid al-Adha,” Islam’s “Feast of Sacrifice,” that was celebrated on Tuesday, July 20.
The country’s Ministry for Religious Affairs said public prayers during the festival, also known as “Hajj Lebaran” in Indonesia, are prohibited to avoid the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Strict health protocols are also to be observed in the slaughter of animals, urging the public to rely only on the country’s official slaughterhouses, which will distribute meat to homes.
“Eid al-Adha” is one of two important holidays celebrated by Muslims to honor the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac as an act of obedience to God’s command.
The Bible’s Old Testament narrates the story of how Abraham took his son Isaac to sacrifice but before he could do it, God provided a lamb to sacrifice instead.
In commemoration of this intervention, animals are sacrificed ritually during the festival. One third of the meat is consumed by the family offering the sacrifice, while the rest is distributed to the poor and needy.
With a weekly average of over 50,000 COVID-19 cases per day, Indonesia is now considered Asia’s new epicenter of the pandemic.
Religious gatherings and travels at the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan have been blamed for the spread of the virus in recent weeks.
Fueled by the spread of the more virulent Delta variant, Indonesia has reported more new COVID-19 cases than any country in the world, according to the seven-day average from a Reuters data tracker.
It was second only to Brazil in terms of the number of deaths and reported on Monday a record 1,338 new fatalities.
The government has faced criticism in some media of its handling of the pandemic with the publication Tempo in an editorial on Monday saying a denial of the gravity of the situation by officials had hurt efforts to control the outbreak.
Indonesia imposed its strictest measures to contain the virus on July 3 and the government is considering whether to extend them when they expire on Tuesday.
Health experts have been pushing for an extension, though Emil Arifin, the deputy of a restaurants association, said more than 400 restaurants in the greater Jakarta area could shut permanently if restrictions continued without compensation. – with a report from Reuters
