I missed the actual slaughter, which was fine by me.

By the time I went out for a newspaper this morning, the streets of my neighborhood were awash with blood. The livestock that had been tethered to posts last night were conspicuously absent.

Sheep, goats and cows had been slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic guidelines that call for cleanliness and minimal suffering for the animal. Meat from the Eid al Adha, the Islamic holiday of sacrifice, was distributed to poor Egyptians at the mosque on my street.

Most of my family is out of town, so the Eid experience is far more sedate this year than our usual gift-giving, prayers and blaring music. The sacrifice typically is made after the dawn prayers, so all I got to see was the aftermath on my block. A man in a red-spattered gown whistled as he sprayed the blood off his front steps with a garden hose. A little further down the street, another man dipped his palm in  blood and stamped a crimson handprint on the wall of his apartment building. Superstitious Egyptians believe the symbol wards off the evil eye and protects the home's inhabitants.

The streets were eerily empty and quiet. The only people out were either en route to family gatherings with huge slabs of meat under their arms or aggressive beggars hoping the holiday cheer would make passersby a little more generous.

The most intriguing scene was just around a corner. A stooped, ancient woman dressed in the black rags of the most destitute of Egyptians was pounding an animal bone on the curb for all she was worth. Bam, bam, bam. The bloody bone slipped out of her feeble grasp but she kept trying to crack it for the marrow, which is used in several recipes.

I reached my newsstand, but there were no International Herald Tribunes because of the holiday. The owner, a Coptic Christian, apologized and said papers would resume tomorrow. As I left the shop, he called out a cheerful, "Merry Christmas!"

Close enough.