The build-up to Christmas this year has been a bit surreal so far. This year, the Muslim festival of Eid ul Adha falls a couple of days before Christmas. Watching preparations for each holiday has been a remarkable study in contrast.

Christmas in Jakarta is pretty much like Christmas anywhere else I have lived: decorations began  appearing in the last week of November, including the obligatory “boogying Santa” swinging his hips in a somewhat grotesquely suggestive manner at the bottom of the ground floor escalators in Sogo department store. Everywhere you go, Marey Carey and Whitney Houstin out-warble each other. The fact that it's 32 degrees outside is nothing unusual. Back home, Christmas Day typically started with a swim at the beach followed by a barbecue. Okay, so 32 degrees in New Zealand in late December would be a bit unusual, but you get the general idea.

If evidence of Christmas is everywhere, the only thing that suggests the approaching Eid ul Adha festival is the sudden appearance of goats tied up on street corners. On Thursday, Muslims commemmorate when Allah demanded that Ibraheem (Abraham) sacrifice his first born son, Ismaeel (Isaac). I remember this story from Sunday school. Just as Abraham was about to do the deed, an angel stopped him and presented him with a ram to sacrifice instead. Mohammed directed Muslims to commemorate this event by sacrificing animals so remember Allah's test and learn from it. What lesson is to be learned, I don't know, except maybe that God of the early Jews was a pretty spiteful bugger.

Goats are the beast of choice for most Indonesians, though this morning I saw men forcing two rather impressive bullocks on to the back of a truck. Off to the slaughter. As you might expect, you can't leave it to the last minute to pick up your sacrificial beast. Awan headed home two weeks ago to pick two goats: one for his aunts and the other for the mosque. He came back a couple of days later, somewhat pleased with his selection: fat and perfect for satay.