Chandan Dev Chaudhary, a Hindu priest, said he was pleased with the high turnout at their annual ‘animal sacrifice’ festival, and insisted tradition had to be kept. “The goddess needs blood,” he said. “Then that person can make his wishes come true.”
The world’s biggest animal sacrifice with up to a million people in attendance began on November 23 in Nepal with the killing of the first of more than 250,000 animals as part of a Hindu festival in the village of Bariyapur, near the border with India.
The event, which happens every five years, began with the decapitation of thousands of buffalo killed in honour of Gadhimai, a Hindu goddess of power. Frightened calves galloped around in vain as the men, wearing red bandanas and armbands, pursued them and chopped off their heads. Banned from entering the animal pen, hundreds of visitors scrambled up the three-metre walls to catch a glimpse of the carnage.
An incredible contrast, as hopeless souls make sacrifices to a lifeless god. Their needs and eternity will be wasted away on the deaf ears of mute and powerless statues, yet blood will still be spilled to no avail.
What a stark and powerful contrast to the efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed “once and for all” on a hill called Calvary over 2,000 years ago. That blood still washes. It still cleanses. It still heals and delivers.
Interestingly the cry of the Hindu worshipers is, “the goddess needs blood” when, in reality, it is they who need the blood. The blood of Jesus.
(Full News Article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/24/hindu-sacrifice-gadhimai-festival-nepal )