I was listening the the BBC World news yesterday when they did a cultural piece on the Gadhimai Mela in Bariyapur, Nepal. 200,000 animals, including buffaloes, goats, and chickens will be sacrificed by specially trained religious butchers over two days. All this carnage is to honor the Hindu goddess of Power, Gadhimaim.
I spoke to a few friends who listened to the story with me were horrified. I asked if the Gods ate meat. Their responded with their natural Christian cultural bias, “Their gods are false gods. This is a waste.” I don’t see it. If a million vegetarian Hindus go meat crazy every fives years, who am I to criticize? I’m sure I eat a few cows worth of steak every five years. None of the meat from the festival goes to waste. After they kill the animal and bless it, they butcher it and it eat. What is wrong with that? To be honest, if I had to wait five years between buffalo steaks, I’d kill the damn things myself… no blessing though.
Religion is crazy.
