Our first two years here … we must have worked on the first day of Eid Al Adha, one of the biggest holidays of the year. Because we bumped into several noteworthy (for a non-Muslim expat) concepts in the course of things today.

First was a bit of a fuss over the preparation of meat for the holiday feast. As mentioned on this site a few days ago, more than a few people here prefer to purchase live goats/sheep (for less than $100 each), and then slaughter the animals themselves.

On a “trending” Twitter thread entitled, “How I know it’s Eid,” one woman wrote, “I know it’s Eid because my father is sharpening the knives.”

So. The spouse of one of the editors at The National became concerned when she could hear the bleats of goats being slaughtered by neighbors. That led to a story being commissioned on the activity, which is illegal in the municipality of Abu Dhabi. When we realized that reporters were being assigned, we piped up (from home) with an email that “it’s going on in our neighborhood; count on it.”

Less than an hour later, one of the reporters working the story found three Yemeni men butchering animals in an open area — on our block. That appeared as a story in the Monday newspaper.

At about 2 p.m., we discovered that the Lulu grocery at Al Wahda Mall was closed. Because of the holiday. It was going to open at 5 p.m. Not sure that Lulu closes on any other day … perhaps not even on National Day, which is the UAE Fourth of July. So that turned out to be a fruitless trip. Again, we would have known — if we’d ever been off before.

Then, in the evening, we discovered that as the day goes on … apparently lots and lots of people here like to go to the mall. The Abu Dhabi Mall was as crowded as we have ever seen it, and every seat was taken for the multiplex screening of a thoroughly mediocre movie, “Tower Heist” — which is what “Ocean’s Eleven” might have looked like had it had half the ambition, been paced at about one-third the speed and been badly cast.

Anyway, people everywhere, out and about, in the hours before midnight. Didn’t expect that, either. Maybe malls in the West are overrun on Christmas night, too … but I don’t think so.