Holy prophet Hazrat Ibrahim was continuously observing dreams of sacrificing his son. Finally, he considered it God order and decided to sacrifice his son Hazrat Ismail. By the benevolence of God his son is replaced by sheep when the prophet was about to sacrifice his son. Even in this modern age this sacrifice has great meaning since Islam orders to distribute meat in poor relatives and poor families along with other relatives and neighbors. In this age meat has become costly and poor people get abundance of meat at the time of Eid-Azha. So, people are getting benefit of this thousands of years old tradition of animal sacrifice. Unfortunately many people sacrifice animals for demonstration. They store the meat in their refrigerators. Such a sacrifice has no meaning in the eyes of Islam.
Yeah it all seems a bit daft to me. Esp when I read in the letters in the paper this morning about people treating the animals badly and leaving all the innards in the public bins - this is ing! Not to mention a health hazard!