Next: about 16 to 18 May 2027
Eid al-Adha
The festival of sacrifice, with lamb and goat dishes: biryani, korma, mandi and tagine, rich in whole spices.
Spices for Eid al-Adha
Eid al-Adha commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice, and families who can afford it share the meat of a sheep or goat with relatives and neighbours. The dishes are slow-cooked and spiced: Pakistani and Indian korma and biryani with cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and saffron; Yemeni and Saudi mandi and kabsa with cumin, coriander, cardamom, dried lime and black pepper; Moroccan mrouzia, lamb with honey, ras el hanout and almonds. Because many portions are shared, the spice use is generous and the recipes belong to the family.
The spices
Written by the EveryMasala desk with AI assistance. Background: "Eid al-Adha" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Clove: Bayu Nugroho, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Ras el hanout: Sarefo, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cumin: Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dried lime: Theinfo, CC BY 3.0, source