Eid Al-Adha: Only a minority abstain

A lthough the proportion of Moroccan households who do not perform the Eid al-Adha sacrifice has risen, those that do remain in the majority. Urban dwellers and single-person households are the categories most likely to abstain. According to the national survey conducted in 2022, these households represent 12.6% of total Moroccan households, up from 2014 when only 4.7% of households did not participate in the ritual.

City dwellers are more likely to skip the sacrifice than rural dwellers: 14.3% versus 8.7%. In 2014, these proportions were 5.9% for city dwellers and 2.5% for rural dwellers.

Participation in sacrifice also varies according to standard of living and level of education. Well-to-do households and those headed by educated people are less likely to participate in the ritual. Thus, almost 25.1% of households belonging to the wealthiest 10% do not perform the sacrifice, compared with 7.8% among the poorest 10%. Furthermore, 20.1% of households headed by a person with a higher level of education abstain, compared to 11.7% of those headed by a person with no education.

The types of animals sacrificed are mainly sheep for 95.6% of households, followed by goats for 4.3%, and cattle (0.1%).

Rural households are more likely to sacrifice goats (7.4% vs. 2.8% in urban areas), and the practice is more common among the 10% least affluent households (8.5% vs. 2.7% for the 10% most affluent).

The Eid al-Adha sacrifice represents a significant expense in the annual household meat budget, especially for those on lower incomes. On average, it accounts for 30% of the annual meat budget. For the least affluent households, this proportion rises to 41%, compared with 23% for the richest households.

In terms of consumption, meat from the Eid al-Adha sacrifice accounts for a significant proportion of annual household consumption of red meat, particularly for the least affluent households. On average, each household consumes 141 kilos of meat per annum, including 55.8 kilos of red meat. Meat from the Eid al-Adha sacrifice accounts for around 41% of this annual red meat consumption, with an even higher proportion among the least affluent households (65.4%) compared to the most affluent (31.3%).

Khadija MASMOUDI