Ashtami, today..

This year, as ever, millions of animals are being slaughtered for dashain. Nothing unusual about that. I am not a weak-bellied vegetarian, or I would be arguing that the Shakta Hindu tradition of animal sacrifices is some form of evil: it is the exact opposite; it is a form of appeasing the Good in the universe. What now feels like a farce--getting the goat to "agree" by wetting it behind the ears--is, in mythical methods, a neurological triumph. It is the moment when we, its human sacrificers, agree with the goat that it is dying in our stead, as our proxy. Animal sacrifices, properly understood, become acts of mystical empathy. It is our blood that flows from the goat once it has "agreed" to become the sacrifice to the goddess.  Therefore, it is only correct to mark our foreheads with rice laced with the sacrificial blood. (Although, this practice is much less common now, it does occasionally surface during certain ceremonies, like the kuldeuta's puja.)  It is important that once we make the sacrifice, we eat every edible bit of the animal.

However, it is still possible to wonder if this show of bloodlust is necessary anymore. The same scriptures that call for animal sacrifices also allow the same king of substitution with certain vegetables and fruits. Coconut works because it spills, as would blood; gourds work because they can be "beheaded" in a single stroke. Meat is, although expensive, plentiful enough that we consume it throughout the year. And a week of eating fatty, over-spiced meat can't possibly be good for the human body. We make unwitting sacrifice of our own flesh when we refuse to deflect in the slightest, away from a toxic tradition.