Travelers Digest
Home Page

Click Here for More
Travel Information

World of Religions & Bizarre Rituals
Posted by Michael Smith - June 16th 2008

Religion in one form or another, actually in thousands of forms have been with, and in my opinion plagued, mankind since the beginning.

The below postings are simply to bewilder, and perhaps instill a shocking awareness to the odd, bizarre and violent nature of mankind and his primitive beliefs. Religion was born of carnage, ignorance, superstition and self righteousness...it remains basically unchanged.

Below I have posted some of the world's most bizarre religions, practices and rituals.

Ernesto M. La Porta wrote;

Indeed, as Dr. Ritvo (1974) says in his discussion of my paper (La Porta, 1974), I treat the religious ritual mainly as an external situation acting on religious people. I emphasize the word mainly because, as we know, there is a basic and internal need for religious feeling and for belief. We are also familiar with Freud's ideas about religion: firstly, the internal source of the father as a God, and secondly, his hypothesis of the origins of morality and religion as being derived from the sacrifice of the father in mankind's prehistory. Above all, the human mind was structured through contact between biological impulses and needs, and the external world.

Nowadays the human mind is a complete historical archive of this contact and its prehistory. Internal reality is a product of this encounter and the external world is in part also a product of internal necessity, principally through the projection of internal fantasies, wishes and conflicts.

America's history of war & bloodshed;

From the Revolutionary War against foreign evil agents preventing the birth of a new body politic; on through a Civil War with competing assertions about the evil oppressors existing within the body politic; up to this very moment, with war being waged against unseen terrorizing evil agents bent on the ultimate destruction of the body politic, America defines itself through identification of evil mortal enemies and by shared grief for glorified heroes who die in the battle against them. America is one of the most violent nations in the world, a country gripped by fears of violence from others, an economy driven by propped up global threats of self-made violent forces, with the majority fascinated by graphic depictions of violent acts from early Puritan sermons to contemporary interactive computer games, rap music and extremely violent movies.

American history is a tale of death and destruction from the beginning; a warrior’s story unfolding in the New World with the earliest English settlers establishing warfare as a fundamental ingredient of social progress and as fundamentally religious in its social consequences. The present terror war is no exception. The lifeblood of the nation, its spiritual vigor and moral convictions that move the social body onward in time, is nourished by broken bones and bodies of soldiers who die violently in bloody combat for unknown causes. With their self righteousness and God's ordained blessings they march..."Onward Christian Soldiers." Bush...patriotism...terrorism...oil...religion, profit...all just words...words men die for!

 Present day atrocities

 Japan
As most of the world is now aware, Japan is by far one of the worst in attitude towards animals. They slaughter whales, dolphins, turtles and pretty much everything that lives and breathes. They hold to some of the world's oddest and cruelest rituals, such as the murder of Black bears;

The Lyomante ritual is supposed to be the most important ritual within the Ainu tribe. Their disgusting ritual involves the killing of hibernating mother bears in caves. After the brutal slaughter they then take the cubs back to their villages, raising them for one to two years, at which time they choke the young bears to death. The people state that it is the core of their culture, but the sick methods used clearly show it is nothing more than the acts of disgustingly demented dark minds. In that they do not make a living bear hunting there can be no other reason to torture and murder these beautiful animals. It seems to be the instrumentation of the commercial tourism industry. Personally, I would not care to know anyone that thought this act was entertaining. (Above pic of bear being choke to death with logs)

The Ministry of Environment Japan published their view last October; “The ritual does not violate the law as long as it is observed in an appropriate manner for justifiable purposes”.

If they regard such ceremonial killings of innocent bear cubs as harmless, educationally and ethically...I dread to think of what these people are capable of? But then again, I am aware of their atrocities in war world 2.

Japan also allows the hunting of black & brown bears and last year 5000 Japanese bears were shot and killed. The Japan government caters to thousands of ancient, sick and barbaric rituals, including the allowance of the beating to death of trapped dolphins and the murder of endangered whales. They also allow the slaughter of literally millions of sharks; the fishermen catch and cut off the fins and throw the bleeding and suffering sharks back into the sea, where they sink to the bottom where they slowly and painfully bleed to death.

Japan claims that the hunting is necessary as bears are hazardous to human safety. However, this view is false as hunting is controlled by Hunting Associations in local areas. Hunters apply for expensive hunting permits “in order to eliminate human hazard.” The hunters kill the bears, take out their livers and sell each for around Yen \200,000 (£870 Euro) and up to \600,000 (£2,600Euros)!!

Permitted hunting period is between 15 November and 15 February. (1 October to end of February in Hokkaido), and of course bears are killed perfectly legally within these periods.

Last year, a ceremony called, “Marat Opnika” the ritual of killing grown bears instead of cubs was revived in Asahikawa Hokkaido after a 7 years ban. 60 people attended the ceremony from all over Hokkaido where a male bear which was 4-5 years old was sacrificed.

When bears feel in danger of being attacked by humans in the caves, mother bears sometimes eat their cubs to keep them from being captured by humans. Some hunters go so far as cutting off the bear’s paws with an axe if the bear resist coming out from the cave.

Please get involved and voice your detest of their murderous actions against animals and wildlife by calling or writing to;

Minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan Godochosha No.5,1-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Cho-ku, Tokyo 100-8975, JAPAN. Tel: 81-(0)3-3581-3351, Email:

Governor Harumi Takahashi Hokkaido Government Nishi 6-chome, Kita 3-jo, Chuo-ku, Sapporo 060-8588 JAPAN Tel: 81-(0)11-231-4111

Mr. Kazushi Abe. {This organization promotes the ceremony.} Vice Chairman Utari Association Presto 1.7 (7F), North 1, West 7, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0111 JAPAN, Tel: 81-(0)11-271-4171 Email: ainu@frpac.or.jp

Your letters, calls and emails will help! Please let them know the world does care and we demand action.

 Canada
The clubbing murders of thousands of Baby Seals. You might ask if the below article is of a religious nature, and I would state that yes, as all driving forces in our genetic makeup are self driven, such as rituals, superstitions, dogmas and yes...especially greed. The below falls into the greed category and clearly expresses our barbaric nature and vile contempt for all things...especially if we can make a buck.

The Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island is primarily noted for four things. The most famous of these is an author named Lucy Maud Montgomery and her books about Anne Shirley – Anne of Green Gables.

Anne Shirley is one of the most famous Canadians known in Japan. The Japanese love her and every years thousands of Japanese travel to the island Province of Prince Edward Island to see Green Gables, the home of Anne. Actually it is the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery but those who visit it envision Anne, and not Lucy when they tour Green Gables. In Japan, the book is entitled Akage no An.

The second thing that Prince Edward Island is famous for is that it is the birthplace of the nation of Canada. It was in Charlottetown on July 1st, 1867 that Canada became a country.

The third thing that Prince Edward Island is noted for is potatoes and the rich red soil of the island situated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence is the source of potatoes sold throughout the world.

The fourth thing that Prince Edward Island is famous for is not so romantic as Anne and not so tasty as the potatoes. It is a horrid thing, a bloody, nightmarish, cruel, and evil thing and that is the annual slaughter of beautiful, newly born, fluffy white, baby harp seals.

During the days when Anne lived at Green Gables, the month of March saw men from Anne’s province put on spiked boots, and then armed with clubs they walked out onto the hard ice offshore the beaches of Prince Edward Island, and began to bludgeon the defenseless seals in their nursery. Before the eyes of the baby seals helpless mothers, these men kicked the pups in the face, smashed their fragile skulls with their clubs and sometimes, because they were lazy or inclined to be cruel, they would skin the little creatures alive. Any mother that tried to protect her baby was shot or clubbed in the face.

The icy shores of Cavendish Beach is annually saturated with the the blood of these helpless baby seals. The skinned little bodies of baby seals, thousands of them, their glazed large black eyes staring sightlessly into the cruel skies, reflecting the horror of the clubs and vicious boots of the sealers. Born on the ice, and nursed by their mother for only a few days...just to be ruthlessly assaulted and slaughtered.

In 2003 the Canadian government targeted 350,000 seals for slaughter with another 350,000 to be killed in 2004 and another 350,000 to be killed in 2005 and continues these horrific numbers even today. A million and a half defenseless seals have been murdered in the last 4 years not far from Green Gables. I wonder how many of the tourists who make the pilgrimage to Green Gables every summer would be horrified to have their vision of the innocence and simplicity of Green Gables to be shattered by the knowledge that Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Reaper of Death continues to inflict horrific cruelty and slaughter on the innocents on the shores of Anne’s beloved province of Prince Edward Island. (What on heaven or Earth gives us the right to murder what nature has taken millions of years to create?)

The Canadian Gov. justifies the slaughter of the harp seals by managing them and referring to them as fish. It is called the seal fishery.

Well, if this is justification, then I guess we humans should still be classified as monkeys and all put in zoos and fed bananas!!! Sic...sic and sic! MS. 06-16-08

 Ritual Sacrifices
Ritual Sacrifice does serve a practical purpose, actually. It serves to reinforce support for the Ruling Elites from the Populace. Behold the awesome and terrible power of your rulers!

Executing someone is by all forms of the meaning...a ritual sacrifice, which, sadly, is surprisingly effective, even though it has no direct benefit to the populace itself. It’s a carefully crafted fantasy, justified by precedent and authority, just as carefully crafted. Today...like yesterday...not much ever changes!

Aztecs waged “flower wars” to capture prisoners for sacrifices they called nextlaualli, “debt payment to the gods” so that the sun could survive each cycle of 52 years. Every 52 years a special “new fire ceremony” occurred. All fires were extinguished, and in the middle of the night a sacrifice was made. They then waited for dawn. If the Sun appeared, it meant that the sacrifices for this cycle had been enough.

The practice of sacrifice is found in the oldest human records. The archaeological record contains human and animal corpses with sacrificial marks long before any written records of the practice. Sacrifices are a common theme in most religions, and though the frequency of animal, sacrifices are said to be rare...they are still practiced daily in Nepal and India, as I personally have seen hundreds of animal sacrifices in those regions. Even worse...human sacrifices are still going on in many parts of India, even now.

Judaism

 Korban and Shechita
In response from his peoples concern over Israel's treatment of Palestinians; “Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that...I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, October 8th, 2004.

In Judaism, a sacrifice is known as a Korban, from the Hebrew root karov, meaning "to [come] close [to God]".

The centrality of sacrifices in Judaism is clear, with much of the Bible, particularly the opening chapters of the book Leviticus, detailing the exact method of bringing sacrifices. Sacrifices were either bloody (animals) or unbloody (grain and wine). Bloody sacrifices were divided into holocausts (burnt offerings, in which the whole animal was burnt), guilt offerings (in which part was burnt and part left for the priest) and peace offerings (in which similarly only part of the animal was burnt). Yet the prophets point out that sacrifices are only a part of serving God and need to be accompanied by inner morality and goodness.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, ritual sacrifice ceased except among the Samaritans. Maimonides, a medieval Jewish rationalist, argued that God always held sacrifice inferior to prayer and philosophical meditation. However, God understood that the Israelites were used to the animal sacrifices that the surrounding pagan tribes used as the primary way to commune with their gods. As such, in Maimonides' view, it was only natural that Israelites would believe that sacrifice was a necessary part of the relationship between God and man. Maimonides concludes that God's decision to allow sacrifices was a concession to human psychological limitations. It would have been too much to have expected the Israelites to leap from pagan worship to prayer and meditation in one step. In the Guide for the Perplexed, he writes:

"But the custom which was in those days general among men, and the general mode of worship in which the Israelites were brought up consisted in sacrificing animals... It was in accordance with the wisdom and plan of God...that God did not command us to give up and to discontinue all these manners of service. For to obey such a commandment would have been contrary to the nature of man, who generally cleaves to that to which he is used; it would in those days have made the same impression as a prophet would make at present [the 12th Century] if he called us to the service of God and told us in His name, that we should not pray to God nor fast, nor seek his help in time of trouble; that we should serve Him in thought, and not by any action." (Book III, Chapter 32. Translated by M. Friedlander, 1904, The Guide for the Perplexed, Dover Publications, 1956 edition.)

In contrast, many others such as Nachmanides (in his Torah commentary on Leviticus 1:9) disagreed, contending that sacrifices are an ideal in Judaism, completely central.

The teachings of the Torah and Tanakh reveal Judaism's abhorrence of human sacrifices.

 Judaism, cont.
Current religious thinking views the Akedah as central to the replacement of human sacrifice; while some Talmudic scholars assert the replacement was the sacrifice of animals at the Temple - using Exodus 13,2.12f; 22,28f; 34,19f; Numeri 3,1ff; 18,15; Deuteronomy 15,19 - others view that as superseded by the symbolic pars-pro-toto sacrifice of circumcision. Leviticus 20,2 and Deuteronomy 18,10 specifically outlaw the giving of children to Moloch, making it punishable by stoning; the Tanakh subsequently denounces human sacrifice as barbaric customs of Baal worshippers (e.g. Psalms 106,37ff).

Kaparot is a traditional Jewish religious ritual that takes place around the time of the High Holidays. Classically, it is performed by grasping a live chicken by the shoulder blades and moving around one’s head three times, symbolically transferring one’s sins to the chicken. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor, preferably eaten at the pre-Yom Kippur feast. In modern times, Kapparos is performed in the traditional form mostly in Haredi communities. The ritual is preceded by the reading of Psalms 107:17-20 and Job 33:23-24.

On the eve of Yom Kippur 2005, more than 200 caged chickens were abandoned in rainy weather as part of a Kaparot operation in Brooklyn, NY; some of these starving and dehydrated chickens were subsequently rescued by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Jacob Kalish, an Orthodox Jew from Williamsburg, was charged with animal cruelty for the drowning deaths of 35 of these chickens. In response to such reports of the mistreatment of chickens, animal rights organizations have begun to picket public observances of kaparot, particularly in Israel.

 Judaism, cont.
Infant circumcision; "The method to be adopted is laid down thus: 'One excises the foreskin, [that is] the entire skin covering the glands, so that the corona is laid bare. Afterwards, one tears with the finger-nail the soft membrane underneath the skin, turning it to the sides until the flesh of the glands appears. Thereafter, one sucks the membrane until the blood is extracted from the remote places, so that no danger [to the infant may ensue; and any circumciser who does not carry out the sucking procedure is to be removed [from his office] The operation itself, then, consists of three distinct acts: the excision of the prepuce; the laceration of the mucous membrane covering the glands; and the sucking of the blood from the interior of the wound." Immanuel Jakobovits. Jewish Medical Ethics: A Comparative and Historical Study of the Jewish Religious Attitude to Medicine and Its Practice. New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1959.

The Bloody Passovers of Dr. Toaff — By Israel Shamir

Blood, betrayal, torture, and surrender are interwoven in the story of an Italian Jew, Dr Ariel Toaff, as if penned by his compatriot Umberto Eco. Dr Toaff stumbled onto a frightful discovery, was horrified but bravely went on, until he was subjected to the full pressure of his community; he repented, a broken man.

Dr Toaff, the son of the Rabbi of Rome and a professor in the Jewish University of Bar Ilan, not far from Tel Aviv. He made a name for himself by his deep study of medieval Jewry. His three-volume; Love, Work, and Death (subtitled Jewish Life in Medieval Umbria) is an encyclopedia of this admittedly narrow area. While studying his subject he discovered that the medieval Ashkenazi Jewish communities of North Italy practiced a particularly horrible form of human sacrifice. Their wizards and adepts stole and crucified Christian babies, obtained their blood and used it for magical rituals evoking the Spirit of Vengeance against the hated Goyim.

In particular, he dwelt on the case of St Simon of Trent. This two-year old child from the Italian town of Trent was kidnapped by a few Ashkenazi Jews from his home on the eve of Passover 1475 AD. At night, the kidnappers murdered the child; drew his blood, pierced his flesh with needles, crucified him head down calling “So may all Christians by land and sea perish”, and thus they celebrated their Passover, an archaic ritual of outpouring blood and killed babies, in the most literal form, without usual metaphoric “blood-wine” shift.

The killers were apprehended, confessed and were found guilty by the Bishop of Trent. Immediately, the Jews took their protest to the Pope and he sent the bishop of Ventimiglia to investigate. The bishop allegedly accepted a hefty bribe from the Jews and concluded that the child was murdered by a Hamas mine in order to besmirch Israel, as there was no Tsahal ordnance found on the beach of Trent. “Simon had been killed by Christians with the intention of ruining the Jews”, said the pre-war Jewish Encyclopedia, in a clear case of premonition: the same argument was used by Jews in 2006 while explaining away the mass murder of children in Kafr Qana.

Jewish ritual murder has classically been characterized as extremist Jews ritually murdering Christian children and then using their blood in ritual foods. Some Jewish scholars have attacked the book’s thesis by saying the use of blood that way would be completely against Jewish laws, because Jews view any blood as unclean. These rabbis conveniently forgot to mention that some Orthodox rabbis actually suck the blood from the freshly circumcised penises of infants. This sounds very strange, but is true and one Jewish organization even published pictures of the ceremony.

Another interesting corollary is that on Purim, Orthodox Jews have some very strange rituals and dietary habits. Purim is a major Jewish celebration of the murder of Haman, all of his sons and 70,000 Persians that Jews claim plotted a pogrom against them. In Synagogues at Purim, Jewish children beat willow branches which symbolizes the beating of Haman, a fairly hateful ceremony to be sure. Even stranger is the cuisine made up for Jewish Purim feasts. They make and eat with glee Hamantaschen, which are triangle shaped cookies that symbolize Haman’s ears. But, the height of their dietary oddness might be the dish they call Kreplach, which are dough pockets filled with ground beef, the ground beef is meant to represent the beaten flesh of Haman. Some of you who are new to the world of Jewish extremism might not believe me but I document these facts from mainstream Jewish sources in my book Jewish Supremacism.

 Christianity
In Christian teaching, followers are taught that God became incarnate in Jesus Christ to accomplish the reconciliation of God and humanity, which had separated itself from God through sin (see the concept of original sin). According to the view that has dominated Western theology since early in the 2nd millennium, God's justice required an atonement for sin from humanity if human beings were to be restored to their place in creation and saved from damnation. However, God knew limited human beings could not make sufficient atonement, for humanity's offence to God was infinite, so God sent his only Son to become the sacrifice of the everlasting covenant. In Christian theology, this sacrifice replaced the insufficient animal sacrifice of the Old Covenant; Christ the "Lamb of God" replaced the lambs' sacrifice of the ancient Korban Todah (the Rite of Thanksgiving), chief of which is the Passover in the Mosaic law.

Geza Vermes writes that the title "Lamb of God" does not necessarily refer to the metaphor of a sacrificial animal. He points out that in Galilean Aramaic, the word talya, literally "lamb", had the common meaning of "male child". This is akin to kid meaning "child" in modern colloquial English. The female equivalent of talya was talitha, literally "ewe lamb" and figuratively "girl" (the word is found in the narrative of the daughter of Jairus). Thus, "Lamb of God" could have been a slang means of saying "Son of God" or "God's Kid". This view differs from the traditional understanding of the phrase as it is used in reference to the acts of Jesus, and not merely his status as the Son of God.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, as well as among some High Church Anglicans, the Eucharist or Mass, and the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodox Church, is seen as a sacrifice. It is however, not a separate or additional sacrifice to that Christ on the cross; it is rather the exact same sacrifice, which transcends time and space ("the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world") (Rev. 13:8), renewed and made present, the only distinction being that it is offered in an unbloody manner. The sacrifice is made present without Christ dying or being crucified again; it is a re-presentation to God, of the "once and for all" sacrifice of Calvary by the now risen Christ, who continues to offer himself and what he has done on the cross as an oblation to the Father. The complete identification of the Mass with the sacrifice of the cross is found in Christ's words at the last supper over the bread and wine: "This is my body, which is given up for you," and "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed...unto the forgiveness of sins." The bread and wine, offered by Melchizedek in sacrifice in the old covenant (Genesis 14:18; Psalm 110:4), are transformed through the Mass into the body and blood of Christ (see transubstantiation; note: the Orthodox Church does not hold as dogma, as do Catholics, the doctrine of transubstantiation, preferring rather to not make an assertion regarding the "how" of the sacraments), and the offering becomes one with that of Christ on the cross. In the Mass as on the cross, Christ is both priest (offering the sacrifice) and victim (the sacrifice he offers is himself), though in the Mass in the former capacity he works through a solely human priest who is joined to him through the sacrament of Holy Orders and thus shares in Christ's priesthood. Through the Mass, the merits of the one sacrifice of the cross can be applied to the redemption of those present, to their specific intentions and prayers, and to the redemption of the souls in purgatory. A prophecy of the sacrifice of the Mass, offered in every corner of the world, is found in the Book of Malachi in the Old Testament: "from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering, for my name is great among the Gentiles" (Mal. 1:10-11).

The concept of self-sacrifice and martyrs are central to Christianity. Often found in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity is the idea of joining one's own sufferings to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Thus one can offer up involuntary suffering, such as illness, or purposefully embrace suffering in acts of penance, such as fasting. Some Protestants criticize this as a denial of the all-sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, but it finds support in St. Paul: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Col 1:24). Pope John Paul II explained in his encyclical Salvifici Doloris:

"In the Cross of Christ not only is the Redemption accomplished through suffering, but also human suffering itself has been redeemed...Every man has his own share in the Redemption. Each one is also called to share in that suffering through which the Redemption was accomplished...In bringing about the Redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the Redemption. Thus each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ...The sufferings of Christ created the good of the world's redemption. This good in itself is inexhaustible and infinite. No man can add anything to it. But at the same time, in the mystery of the Church as his Body, Christ has in a sense opened his own redemptive suffering to all human suffering."

Some Protestants reject the idea of the Eucharist as a sacrifice, inclining to see it as merely a holy meal (even if they believe in a form of the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine, as Lutherans do). The more recent the origin of a particular tradition, the less emphasis is placed on the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. The Catholic/Orthodox response is that the sacrifice of the Mass in the New Covenant is that one sacrifice for sins on the cross which transcends time offered in an unbloody manner, as discussed above, and that Christ is the real priest at every Mass working through mere human beings to whom he has granted the grace of a share in his priesthood. Since the word priest carries heavy connotations of "one who offers sacrifice", Protestants usually do not use it for their clergy. Evangelical Protestantism emphasizes the importance of a decision to accept Christ's sacrifice on the Cross consciously and personally as atonement for one's individual sins if one is to be saved—this is known as "accepting Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior".

The Orthodox Church sees the celebration of the Eucharist as a continuation, rather than a reenactment, of the Last Supper, as Fr. John Matusiak (of the OCA) says: "The Liturgy is not so much a reenactment of the Mystical Supper or these events as it is a continuation of these events, which are beyond time and space. Unlike many of the Protestant bodies, the Orthodox also see the Eucharistic Liturgy as a bloodless sacrifice, during which the bread and wine we offer to God become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the descent and operation of the Holy Spirit, Who effects the change." This view is witnessed to by the prayers of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, when the priest says: "Accept, O God, our supplications, make us to be worthy to offer unto thee supplications and prayers and bloodless sacrifices for all thy people," and "Remembering this saving commandment and all those things which came to pass for us: the cross, the grave, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting down at the right hand, the second and glorious coming again, Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee on behalf of all and for all," and "… Thou didst become man and didst take the name of our High Priest, and deliver unto us the priestly rite of this liturgical and bloodless sacrifice…"

 Christianity, cont.
The majority of the early Christian Church Fathers saw the sacrifice of Jepthah's virgin daughter as foreshadowing, like Isaac, the death of Jesus Christ not least because Jepthah's vow in the biblical account was made whilst under the influence of the Holy Spirit (Judges 11:29).

In the Christian religion the belief developed that the story of Isaac's binding was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus, whom Christians believe was God's only son and simultaneously God Himself, and who gave up his life so that sins could be forgiven. There is a tradition that the site of the binding of Isaac, Moriah, was also the city of Jesus's future crucifixion, i.e. Jerusalem. However no archaeological or historical evidence supports this assertion. The beliefs of most denominations of Christianity hinge upon a single, specific human sacrifice: that of the Christ. Most Christians believe, at least nominally, that in order to gain access to paradise in the afterlife each individual person must somehow become a partaker in that all-important human sacrifice for the atonement of their personal sins. Some Christians, including Orthodox and Roman Catholics, believe they participate in the sacrifice of Calvary through the Eucharist which they believe is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Many Protestants, however, reject this, and rather believe that the bread and wine of communion are merely symbolic, trusting that it is their faith in Christ's finished work on the cross that atones for their sins.

Exorcism is the practice of evicting demons or other evil spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed (taken control of). The practice is quite ancient and still part of the belief system of many religions, though it is seen mostly in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can only be exercised by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) enjoined: “Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite."

• "The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual - the miter, the altar, the doxology, and communion, the act of "God-eating" - were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions."

• "Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras - called the Son of God and the Light of the World - was born on December 25, died was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday or Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity's weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans."

Summary. Religion in general is a belief based in the mysteries of doubt and suffering along with the reunification of spirits. This is in itself a bizarre orthodox, as that in a universe without virtual end that an all knowing and all powerful God would exist only for our redemption, but only if we follow a broken script written by people living an isolated existence in a barren world with no science or concepts of physics and then edited a million times by those with the desire for control and power, such as church and state. Yet, even today, in a world of science there remains billions of people believing in this paradox. It is definitely a basic primitive human desire of self-redemption in some archaic belief that we are worthy of universal love, eternal life and bliss. As that we are the only species on the planet with self awareness...wouldn't that explain, at least to the intelligent, why the weak cling to these beliefs? MS. 06-17-08

 Spanish Castilian Empire
Why was it considered necessary for the Spanish Crown to justify and legitimize the conquest of the Americas and what arguments and means did it employ for this purpose? In the name of their religion, the Spaniards killed, tortured and murder millions of the SA. natives and did so with callousness and self-righteousness.

At this time in history every colonial country needed an idea to base its conquest and Spain was no different. The ideology behind the Spanish conquest of the Americas was the spread of Catholicism, while stealing land and resources. This fantasized belief in the conversion of the Indians is what drove the Spanish to conquer, settle and govern the New World.

The Castilians modeled their Catholic empire on the Holy Roman Empire of old. They viewed themselves as successors to the Romans. The Castilians regarded themselves as the superior race, who were on a divine mission to achieve a universal Catholic empire. The Castilians felt obligated to extend the faith and conveniently this proved to justify their colonization of the Americas. They understood that by giving the natives the protection of the crown, they would lead a better life. This better life would also arise due to the absence of slavery and the spiritual guidance provided for those "ignorant of Christianity."

If the spreading of the faith was the sole reason for the conquest of the Americas then we must understand how religion was spread. The devout Castilia.

The Spanish Crown had great ecclesiastical power in the newly conquered kingdom. The influx of bureaucratic control gives the illusion that the Spanish were running a civil society and had tamed the �barbaric� Aztec and Inca races. This made the whole exercise pointless in practice but perfect in the Castilians view of fairness. Was this to protect Spanish or Amerindian interests? In truth it helped the natives but benefited the Spanish more as it provided stability which encouraged other colonists to travel to America.

Further justification arose from the Spanish substituting a diet of human flesh with that of beef, pork, chicken and mutton. These councils had strong judicial and executive authority. This is a contributing factor to the massive decline in population in America due to disease, colonial savagery and war.

This socio-economic viewpoint enables us to see that the Castilians hid their true mission under the arguments of civil and social reform. If this was without the force and mindless pillaging of the land, it would be a legitimate theory.

Did the Spanish Crown wish to use legislative foundations to their conquest to ensure protection against dissident conquistadors? This question is based around morals, loyalty and trust. Unfortunately, I feel this is the case for the Castilians. The Royal Crown put forward "The Requirement" which was a legal obligation and had to be read before battle.

In my opinion the ideology of religious conversions as the basis of conquest is a sound idea considering the savagery of the natives religion. This form of taxation was justified by the need to finance the spread of Catholicism. This legislature clearly did not aid the natives against the ruthless warfare yet merely showed Spanish ignorance.

Having lived and traveled throughout South America I am fully aware of this time in history. I visited every museum and library, heard the tales, read the old Spanish memoirs and learned of their cruelty towards the simple natives of the 14th and 15th century. The Spaniards would force the young native children to watch their supplies and if caught dozing they would have their eyelid cut off...so as never to do so again. Rape, incense, murder, slavery, thievery and mayhem...all carried out in the name of Jesus. MS. 06-18-08

By what right did Castile lay claim to the sovereignty over the Americas? Religion and cruelty.

Did you know that Venezuela was named by one of Columbus' men that thought the coastline villages and homes on stilts reminded him of Venice...thus...Venezuela.

Islam

 Dhabihah
An animal sacrifice in Arabic is called ḏabiḥa (ذَبِيْحَة) or Qurban (قُرْبَان) . The term may have roots from the Jewish term Korban'; in some places such as in India/Pakistan, qurbani is always used for Islamic animal sacrifice. In the Islamic context, an animal sacrifice referred to as ḏabiḥa (ذَبِيْحَة) meaning "sacrifice as a ritual" is offered only in Eid ul-Adha. ..."therefore, to thy Lord turn in prayer and in Sacrifice." (Nahr)-Al Quran, 108.2 Qurbani is an Islamic prescription for the affluent to share their good fortune with the needy in the community. On the occasion of Eid ul Adhaa, affluent Muslims all over the world perform the Sunnah of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) by sacrificing a goat or sheep. The meat is then divided into three equal parts. One part is retained by the person who performs the Qurbani. The second is given to his relatives. The third part is distributed to the poor. The Muslims say that this has nothing to do with blood and gore (Qur'an 22:37: "It is not their meat nor their blood, that reaches God. It is your piety that reaches Him." The sacrifice is done to help the poor and in remembrance of Prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael at God's command. The sacrificial animal may be a lamb, a sheep, a goat, a camel or a cow. The animal must be healthy and conscious. The Islamic system of slaughter is called Ḏabīḥah.

 Islam, cont.
Arab violence is observed in some of their religious rituals. The example picture to the left shows a throng of Iraqi Shiite Muslims who cut their heads with swords in a ritual of shared suffering with Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq. Source: A. B. Woodall, Washinton Post, April 23, 2003.

Understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict requires an understanding of the different cultures involved in the conflict. Use of violence is common among Arabs to settle conflicts among themselves.

• The number of dead in the Iran-Iraq war is estimated at over 1,500,000. Needless to say this doesn't come close to the Iraqi dead in the USA led war.

The posted pictures illustrate extreme violence among Arabs in Arab cities. Note that the crowd that surrounds the scene of violence and savagery watches idly without any sign of opposition. Thus, the public appears to accept these barbaric scenes as part of their daily life.

A body of a suspected informer hangs by his foot from a power pole as a crowd, including children, watches, in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, Tuesday, April 23, 2002. (AP Photo, below left).

(Pic. on right. A sign at a demonstration protesting the cartoons published in a Danish Newspaper.)

Some Arabs before Islam used to bury their daughters alive; Islam eventually abolished this practice (surah 81 verse 8-9).

In the sirah (Biography of the prophet), the father of the prophet Mohammed, Abdullah, was about to be sacrificed by his own father Abd-Almutalib to fulfill an oath he had taken. He was saved from death and 100 camels were slaughtered instead.

Exorcism, while most believe is a Christian practice is also common to Islam. Furthermore there are a whole subset of supplications (du’a) intended to guard one’s property and/or self from the influences of the unseen (Jinn, Shaitan (plural)) (which may or may not be evil.). Summary; See above, as all religions are superstitious replicas.

Hinduism

 Yajna
The Sanskrit Yajna is often translated as "sacrifice" but also means worship, devotion, offering, and oblation. It is especially used to describe the offering of ghee (clarified butter), grains, spices, and wood into a fire along with the chanting of sacred mantras. The fire represents Agni, the divine messenger who carries offerings to the Devas. The offerings can represent devotion, aspiration, and seeds of past karma. In Vedic times, Yajna commonly included the sacrifice of milk, ghee, curd, grains, and the soma plant—animal offerings were less common. In modern times, Yajna is often performed at weddings and funerals, and in personal worship. Sacrifice in Hinduism can also refer to personal surrender through acts of inner and outer worship.

A common occurrence; A boy is born with a grotesque birth defect and doctors recommend surgery, but Hindu religious leaders have rallied behind the child's family saying gods do not require or honor medical opinion from doctors to confirm to authenticate their belief that this boy is a reincarnation of the Hindu god; Lord Haunuman. The Dr. Surender Sharma says that the parents will be making the child's life extremely more difficult if they don't see a pediatrician immediately. The appendage was a deformity of the spinal column and/or a tumor that required urgent surgery." Its a shame that the Hindu fundamentalist are not allowing the child to undergo surgery.

Even today there are instances where the elders of villages, authorities unto themselves, mete out punishments like when a woman if branded a liar she had to dip her hands into hot boiling oil to prove her innocence and the such! Just recently I read a horrific story where a family and locals stormed a home and beat, kicked and murdered a young couple. Driving the bloodied and dead couple to their families homes they dropped their bodies in front of the house. Their crime? They married within their village, which is a taboo. Even sadder is that they were murdered by their own families in order to restore honor to the family's name. MS. 06-18-08.

 Jainism, form of Hinduism
Digambar also spelled Digambara is one of the two main sects of Jainism. Senior Digambar monks wear no clothes, following the practice of Lord Mahavira. They do not consider themselves to be nude — they are wearing the environment. Digambaras believe that this practice represents a refusal to give in to the body’s demands for comfort and private property — only Digambara ascetics are required to forsake clothing. Digambara ascetics have only two possessions: a peacock feather broom and a water gourd.

The native Jain communities of Maharashta, Bundelkhand (MP/UP), Karnataka, Tamil Nadu are all Digambaras. In north India, the Saravagis and the Agrawals are also Digambaras. In Gujarat and Southern Rajasthan, the majority of Jains follow the Svetambara tradition, although some Jain communities of these regions like the Humad are also Digambaras.

Bizarre Hindu Rituals

 Tossing infants off of tall towers
Religious traditions around the world vary in their levels of quirkiness - but rarely do they involve throwing infants off the side of buildings.

One exception however, is the case of the small town of Solapur, Maharashtra, India. In this town, chucking infants from tall towers to test the health of their children, is the norm for these Hindus.

While the practice to most people would seem extreme and dangerous, the devotees strongly believe that the ritual will not harm their children.

"It's our family tradition and so we follow it" a devotee said.

 Indian Thaipusam
Thaipusam is an Indian festival. It's a celebration for the son of Shiva (Subramaniam) and the becoming "one" of Pusan and the Brihaspati stars. Lord Subramaniam is the universal granter of wishes. All those who wish to ask for a future favor, fulfill a vow in return for a granted favor, or to repent for past sins will participate in this festival. It's not difficult for Hindus (or anyone) to fall into one of these categories.

There are two places in Malaysia, where this is celebrated. That's in Kuala Lumpur (Batu Caves) and on Penang. Every year in Kuala Lumpur, on Thaipusam, as many as 900,000 devotees and other visitors may throng the caves. As a form of penance or sacrifice, many of them carry kavadis (literally, "burden," such as a pitcher or jug). These are large, brightly decorated frameworks, usually combined with various metal hooks and skewers which are used to pierce the skin, cheeks and tongue. By doing this penance they expect some favours from their Gods. It is a common practice for devotees here to pierce themselves with numerous hooks and long skewers as well as to pull heavy chariots hooked to their backs even though nothing is mentioned about these forms of devotional expressions in the holy books.

The festival is held in the tenth month of the Hindu calendar (mostly the end of January). This 3-day festival will start off at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown district.

 Taiwan Buddhism
A group of men wearing crash helmets and protective gear stand together under a rain of sparks and flames from exploding rockets during one of Taiwan's most bizarre and dangerous religious festival, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002, in Yenshui, Tainan County, 350 kilometers south of Taipei. The ritual evolved from a desperate attempt centuries ago to drive away a plague that was wiping out the town and scare away evil spirits. Each year thousands of visitors flock to the town to endure the swarms of rockets of this strange ritual held during the Lantern Festival, which caps off the 15-day celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. This year the holiday fell in February 26.

A man wearing a crash helmet and protective gear walks next to sedan chairs carrying statues of god Kuan Kung under a rain of sparks and flames from exploding rockets during one of Taiwan's most bizarre and dangerous religious festival, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002, in Yenshui, Tainan County, 350 kilometers south of Taipei. The ritual evolved from a desperate attempt centuries ago to drive away a plague that was wiping out the town and scare away evil spirits. Each year thousands of visitors flock to the town to endure the swarms of rockets of this strange ritual held during the Lantern Festival, which caps off the 15-day celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. This year the holiday fell in February 26.

A father holds his son in his arms while a Buddhist volunteer performs a ritual ceremony to ward off evil and start the coming year of the horse safely, Monday, Feb. 11, 2002, at the Hsin Tien temple in Taipei. According to the Chinese lunar calendar the Year of the Horse begins tomorrow. The horse is one of the twelve signs of the Chinese horoscope.

A volunteer at a local temple holds a bunch of burning incense sticks to be offered to worshippers as they celebrate the new lunar year, the year of the Horse, in the early morning, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2002, in Taipei. The start of the lunar new year is the biggest celebration for ethnic Chinese and most spend the week end feasting with family and friends in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.

Thousands of visitors and locals wearing crash helmets and protective gear gather in a main street around an expanding cloud of sparks and flames from exploding rockets during one of Taiwan's most bizarre and dangerous religious festival, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002, in Yenshui, Tainan County, 350 kilometers south of Taipei. The ritual evolved from a desperate attempt centuries ago to drive away a plague that was wiping out the town and scare away evil spirits. Each year thousands of visitors flock to the town to endure the swarms of rockets of this strange ritual held during the Lantern Festival, which caps off the 15-day celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. This year the holiday fell in February 26.

An official from the Hse Yo Temple presents the Goddess Matsu with a prayer for rain as Taiwan faces its worst drought in decades, Sunday, May 5, 2002, in Taipei. The government implemented water-rationing measures island-wide last week, cutting the water supply for car washers, saunas and swimming pools. Forecasters see no immediate relief for Taiwan's severe drought. Since January, the capital, Taipei, has received just 280 millimeters (11 inches) of rain, half the amount it usually receives, Central Weather Bureau officials have said.

A young man, with his face painted to resemble a local Taiwanese deity, looks on during a performance at a folk festival , Saturday, February 17, 2001, in Taipei. In traditional Taiwanese mythology, deities like this one have the power to drive away evil spirits. The folk festival, sponsored by the Taipei City Government, introduces traditional Taiwanese folklore to citizens.

A worshipper in trance bleeds as he pierces himself with a steel rod in front of a temple during the annual Ching Shan Temple parade, Self inflected torture and abuse is practiced across the globe and is especially profoundly carried out in Asia.

A worshipper costumed as an army general from Chinese mythology, performs a dance in front of a temple during the annual Ching Shan Temple parade.

A woman with her baby in the arms lay on a road waiting for pilgrims carrying a statue of the Goddess Matsu to bless them, Thursday March 29, 2001 in Wu Tsao, Yunlin County, 200 kilometers, 125 miles, south of Taipei. Buddhist worshippers celebrate the birthday of Matsu, Goddess of the sea, by making an annual 8 days, 320 kilometers long pilgrimage in central Taiwan. The pilgrimage will be completed when the Goddess Matsu will be carried back in her home temple of Tachia Township, in Taichung County,

 Mormonism
Most don't know that the Mormon church in Utah owns most of the land, as well as regulates the  sale and purchase of alcohol. The city, which is run by the church also approves and regulates all licenses for liquor stores and bars. Even though now outlawed, most Mormons still believe it is mans right to wed as many women as they desire. An even odder ceremonial belief they practice is baptism for the dead; vicarious baptism or proxy baptism is a religious practice of baptizing a living person on behalf of an individual who is dead; the living person is acting as the deceased person’s proxy. It has been practiced since 1840 in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where it is also called temple baptism because it is performed only in dedicated temples.

In the practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a living person, acting as proxy, is baptized by immersion on behalf of a deceased person of the same gender. The baptism ritual is as follows: after calling the living proxy by name, the person performing the baptism says, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and in behalf of [full name of deceased person], who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” The proxy is then immersed briefly in the water. Baptism for the dead is a distinctive ordinance of the church and is based on the belief that baptism is a required ordinance for entry into the Kingdom of God.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints vicariously baptizes people regardless of race, sex, or creed. This includes both victims and perpetrators of genocide. Some Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their supporters have objected to this practice.

Shamanism
Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. There are many variations in shamanism throughout the world, though there are some beliefs that are shared by all forms of shamanism. Its practitioners claim the ability to diagnose and cure human suffering and, in some societies, the ability to cause suffering. This is believed to be accomplished by traversing the axis mundi and forming a special relationship with, or gaining control over, spirits.

Shamans have been credited with the ability to control the weather, divination, the interpretation of dreams, astral projection, and traveling to upper and lower worlds. Shamans were used in Tibetan Buddhism as a form of divination by which the Dalai Lama was given prophesies of the future and advice.

 Mesoamerican religions
Religion and the needs of the state: the relationship between religion and political, military, and economic institutions. This is in reference to the ancient Mayan and Aztec religions, but its context still applies today...to the church...the state and the military. Some things just never change and the philosophy that if it worked for centuries then obviously why not continue to take full advantage of the weakness and superstitions of mankind? MS. 06-17-08

Maya religion was probably the major ideological justification for the Maya political, military, and economic institutions. By building temples, for example, the rulers enhanced their own prestige and authority to rule, and created social unification. The use of war to obtain captives for sacrifice probably overlapped nicely with a ruler’s desire to militarily "decapitate" neighboring polities to obtain economic tribute and eventually to expand their territory. Building pyramidal structures also probably reinforced and reminded the people of their place in the pyramidal hierarchy and structure of society.

The Maya, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Aztec religions all had a concept of a vital force that separated living from nonliving matter. For the Maya this was expressed in the concept of "ik," or wind, breath, or life. For the Zapotecs it was "pee" or wind, breath, or spirit. For the Mixtec it was ""yni" or "ini" or spirit, heart, or heat. For the Aztec it was "tona" or vital energy, or heat. As animists, the line drawn as to what was alive, was different from the Judeo-Christian tradition. They attributed life to many things which the Spaniards, for example, did not (Id.). The idea of human and/or animal sacrifice was one of the more notable shared concepts of these religions which were concerned with keeping the cosmos in balance through human.

 The perceived relationship between humans and supernaturalism
Mixtec religion worshipped the forces of nature including life, death and an afterlife (Spores 1994:342). The deities were represented with images associated with war, the sun, human sacrifice, fertility, rain, wind, air, etc. (Id.). The sun was the deity held in the highest esteem (Id.). Humans were obligated "to maintain the balance among men, nature, and the supernatural world through conscious acts of private and social ritual" (Id. at 344). Blood sacrifice from the ears and tongue, and bird feathers were sometimes offered. Dances were sometimes given. Human and animal sacrifices were sometimes made including heart sacrifices (Id.).

 Principal beliefs and major gods
The development and use of a calendar for astrological and divination purposes is illustrated by the lore surrounding the calendar round of 52 years and the yearly cycles (Id.). New fire ceremonies indicated a renewal of the world. People originally emerged from a natural world that was already existing (Id. at 344). There is no sequential creation, destruction, and recreation cosmology like the Maya. Principal gods besides those recounted above, included ones associated with the planets, war, health, fertility, weather, etc. Each community had its own deity associated with it and there is no hierarchy particularly apparent in the supernatural universe, unlike the Aztec religion.

Animal Sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practiced by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature. Animal sacrifice has turned up in almost all cultures, from the Hebrews to the Greeks and Romans (particularly the purifying ceremony Lustratio) and from the Aztecs to the Yoruba. However, the practice was a taboo among the Ancient Egyptians, and they tended to look down on cultures that practiced this custom. Animal sacrifice is still practiced today by the followers of Santería and other lineages of Orisa as a means of curing the sick and giving thanks to the Orisa (gods). However in Santeria, such animal offerings constitute an extremely small portion of what are termed ebos—ritual activities that include offerings, prayer and deeds. Some villages in Greece also sacrifice animals to Orthodox saints in a practice known as kourbània. The practice, while publicly condemned, is often tolerated for the benefits it provides to the church and the sense of community it engenders. (Below pic. of Goat beheading; Nepal animal sacrifice. April 2008)

 Human Sacrifice & Cremation Rituals
Human sacrifice was practiced by many ancient cultures. People would be ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease a god or spirit. While not widely known, human sacrifices for religious reasons still exist today in a number of nations. (Below photo of a Human Ritual Cremation in Nepal in April 2008)

Some occasions for human sacrifice found in multiple cultures on multiple continents include:

• Human sacrifice to accompany the dedication of a new temple or bridge.

• Sacrifice of people upon the death of a king, high priest or great leader; the sacrificed were supposed to serve or accompany the deceased leader in the next life.

• Human sacrifice in times of natural disaster. Droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. were seen as a sign of anger or displeasure by deities, and sacrifices were supposed to lessen the divine ire.

Some of the best known ancient human sacrifices were those practiced by various Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica. The Aztec were particularly noted for practicing this on an unusually large scale; a human sacrifice would be made every day to aid the sun in rising, the dedication of the great temple at Tenochtitlán was reportedly marked with the sacrificing of thousands, and there are multiple accounts of captured Conquistadores being sacrificed during the wars of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

In Scandinavia, the old Scandinavian religion contained human sacrifice, and both the Norse sagas and German historians relate of this, see e.g. Temple at Uppsala and Blót.

There is evidence to suggest Pre-Hellenic Minoan cultures practiced human sacrifice. Sacrificed corpses were found at a number of sites in the citadel of Knossos in Crete. The north house at Knossos contained the bones of children who appeared to have been butchered. It is possible they may have been for human consumption as was the tradition with sacrificial offerings made in Pre-Hellenic Civilization. The myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (set in the labyrinth at Knossos) provides evidence that human sacrifice was commonplace. In the myth, we are told that Athens sent seven young men and seven young women to Crete as human sacrifices to the Minotaur. This ties up well with the archaeological evidence that most sacrifices were of young adults or children.

Human sacrifice still happens today as an underground practice in some traditional religions, for example in muti killings. Human sacrifice is no longer officially condoned in any country, and these cases are regarded as murder.

In Hindu narratives, practicing human sacrifice and eating human meat was supposedly a work of the demons, but was occasionally carried out as recently as 1968 in Nepal and India.

In the tale Aeneid by Virgil, the character Sinon claims that he was going to be a human sacrifice to Poseidon to calm the seas (of course Sinon was lying).

Human sacrifice is a common theme in the religions and mythology of many cultures.

Witchcraft: Basic Philosophy of Wicca or Witchcraft

Wicca, or Witchcraft, is a so-called earth religion ...a re-linking with the life force of nature, both on this planet and in the stars and space beyond. In city apartments, in suburban backyards, and in country glades, groups of women and men meet on the new and full moons and at festival times to raise energy and put themselves in tune with these natural forces. They honor the old goddesses and gods, including the Triple Goddess of the waxing, full, and waning moon, and the Horned God of the sun and animal life, as visualizations of immanent nature.

Witchcraft Rituals: April 30 - May Eve - Beltaine (Beltane)

 April 30 - May Eve - Beltaine
'Beltane' means 'fire of Bel', Belinos being one name for the Sun God, whose coronation feast we now celebrate. As summer begins, weather becomes warmer, and the plant world blossoms, an exuberant mood prevails. It is a time of unabashed sexuality and promiscuity. Young people spend the entire night in the woods 'a-maying', and dance around the phallic Maypole the next morning. Older married couples may remove their wedding rings (and the restrictions they imply) for this one night. May morning is a magical time for 'wild' water (dew, flowing streams, and springs) which is collected and used to bathe in for beauty, or to drink for health. The Christian religion had only a poor substitute for the life-affirming Maypole - namely, the death-affirming cross. Hence, in the Christian calendar, this was celebrated as 'Roodmas'. In Germany, it was the feast of Saint Walpurga, or 'Walpurgisnacht'. An alternative date around May 5 (Old Beltaine), when the sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus, is sometimes employed by Covens. (The name 'Lady Day' is incorrectly assigned to this holiday by some modern traditions of Wicca.)

 Witchcraft: TWO WITCHES A Modern Craft Fairy-Tale
Once upon a time, there were two Witches. One was a Feminist Witch and the other was a Traditionalist Witch. And, although both of them were deeply religious, they had rather different ideas about what their religion meant. The Feminist Witch tended to believe that Witchcraft was a religion especially suited to women because the image of the Goddess was empowering and a strong weapon against patriarchal tyranny. And there was distrust in the heart of the Feminist Witch for the Traditionalist Witch because, from the Feminist perspective, the Traditionalist Witch seemed subversive and a threat to "the Cause."

 December 21 - Winter Solstice - Yule
'Yule' means 'wheel', for now the wheel of the year has reached a turning point, with the longest night of the year. This is the seed-point of the solar year, mid-winter, time of greatest darkness when we seek within ourselves to comprehend our true nature. In virtually all Pagan religions, this is the night the Great Mother Goddess gives birth to the baby Sun God, because from this day forward, the days begin to lengthen, light is waxing. The Christian religion adopted this theme as the birthday of Jesus, calling it 'Christmas'. The alternative fixed calendar date of December 25th (called 'Old Yule' by some Covens) occurs because, before various calendar changes, that was the date of the solstice.

 Love Spells: The Ethics of Love Spells
Why so many books containing so many love spells? Why such an emphasis on a kind of magic that I, personally, have always considered very negative? And to make matters even more confusing, the books that do take the trouble of dividing spells between 'positive' and 'negative' magic invariably list love spells under the first heading. After all, they would argue, love is a good thing. There can never be too much of it. Therefore, any spell that brings about love must be a GOOD spell. Never mind that the spell puts a straightjacket on another's free will, and then drops it in cement for good measure.

SEXUAL COME-ONS AT PAGAN FESTIVALS - An Open Letter to the Web of Oz
Like many another Neo-Pagan, I began life under the heavy indoctrination of Christian precepts. Like many others, I found this upbringing to be not only painful, but psychologically damaging, as well. It has taken years of disciplined work to shrug off the feelings of guilt and self-recrimination foisted upon me during those years. Especially, I remember the pain of being taught to feel shame and remorse over each and every thought I had of a sexual nature. And any overt sexual act (other than narrowly defined exceptions) was anathema -- a cause for eternal damnation.

 THE PENTAGRAM
The pentagram, or five-pointed star, may be the most misunderstood religious symbol around these days. Being the most common symbol of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, it has nevertheless been denigrated by movie and publishing industries which seem 'hell-bent' on connecting it with Satanism and other malevolent practices. However, like the Roman Cross or Crucifix, it is only when the symbol is INVERTED that it alludes to negativity. And even then, there are exceptions, as we shall see.

The most famous kind of Witchcraft is Wicca, but there are many other kinds of Witchcraft both modern and ancient from cultures all over the world.

Witchcraft is the oldest known religion (based on archaeological evidence, including small Goddess figurines, burial rituals, ivory witchcraft tools, and botanical plant remains) and witchcraft is the fastest growing religion in the United States.

Reliable archaeological and historical evidence on traditional witchcraft is limited and consists mostly of accounts of Christians falsely accusing other Christians, Jews, and women of being witches during the Burning Times. Most modern witchcraft is based on some combination of archaeology, family oral traditions, modern reconstructions and interpretations, and such activities as dreams, visions, divination, and other subjective sources.

Witchcraft is the fastest growing religion in the United States and Great Britain and has surpassed (or will soon surpass, depending on who does the polling) Judaism as the third most populous religion in the U.S. (Christianity is the most populous religion in the U.S. and Islam is second). Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world (primarily because of high birth rates, not because of new conversions). Buddhism is the fastest growing religion in Australia. The Falun Dafa or Falun Gong religion is the fastest growing religion in China. The leading voice among world Witches is witchvox.org. Witchvox is a great web site with listings for a wide variety of witchcraft practices and beliefs.

Witch; A witch is a female shaman, typically including divination (astrology, palmistry, Tarot, I Ching, etc.), healing (herbal medications, aromatherapy, massage, sacred sexuality, etc.), and magic. (see note below about male witches)

Witchcraft; The practice of any of the arts of a witch or the religion of a witch.

Warlock; Wizard; traitor. From Old English wær covenant + -loga one who denies (related to leogan to lie), literally meaning “oath-breaker”. This term reflects medieval Christian propaganda and does not accurately describe a male witch.

There is a lot of confusion over exactly what witchcraft is. Part of this confusion is because “witch” has a lot of different meanings, and the number of meanings is expanding rapidly. The preceding definition is a root definition, from which the many modern definitions are derived. Obviously there will be a lot of modern witches who don’t match the root definition. Teen Witch is not trying to exclude them. Once you understand the root definition, it becomes easier to understand how the many modern varieties came into existence.

In particular, Teen Witch is not trying to discriminate against guys. Of course men can be witches. Traditionally, witches are women, but there have always been a small number of male witches. In modern times it is much more common for males to become witches.
Early witchcraft

The origins of witchcraft were early human efforts to deal with women’s mysteries, particularly the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and childbirth. Nobody is certain when witchcraft first started, although it probably started around the same time that pre-humans mastered fire (around 400,000 years ago). The oldest evidence of witchcraft is a piece of whalebone from 106,000 years ago that has a crude calendar marking the phases of the moon and a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Early witchcraft combined magic ritual with herbal preparations, built on millennia of lore passed down through generations of wise women.

As one example, consider the use of the rose. Modern science has revealed that the rose hip (the sweet part at the center of a rose) has the highest concentration of iron of any plant (it is also an excellent source of vitamin C). A woman loses a lot of iron during her period, and a natural supplement of iron has obvious positive benefits. Additionally, there are a few dozen minor trace ingredients in rose hips, many of which help stabilize a woman’s emotions and moods while on her period.

Obviously early witches didn’t know the scientific details, but they did know that eating rose hips (either fresh, or dried rose hips used to make rose hip tea) helped during menstruation. So, taking rose hips during menstruation became a fairly standard part of witchcraft.

In fact, it is this witchcraft practice that led to the association of roses with romance. Before Christianity, the use of rose hips or rose hip tea during a woman’s period was fairly common knowledge. The men who were close to a woman (particularly her husband or mate) would make sure that they brought their lover plenty of roses during her period. And obviously a man would have to be on intimate terms with a woman to know the right timing for when to bring roses.

Several Christian popes attempted to eliminate the practice of witchcraft, including outlawing growing or possessing flowers with the death penalty (because witchcraft made so much use of various flowers for herbal preparations). This harsh penalty caused a lot of the common knowledge about the herbal effects of various flowers to be lost in Western civilization, but the association of roses with romance and love remained long after the actual witchcraft meaning was lost.

Witchcraft, like any living religion, has blossomed and grown and changed through the millennia, and now has lots of different forms. But all of those new forms can be traced back to early female shamanism.

 Kinds of Witchcraft
Just about every culture in the world had at least one form of witchcraft. There are several hundred common forms of witchcraft practiced in the United States, Great Britain, and around the world, the two most common being eclectic witchcraft and Wicca.

Eclectic Witchcraft is an individual approach in which a witch picks and chooses from many different traditions and creates a personalized form of witchcraft that meets her needs and abilities.

Wicca is a loosely connected group of about 150 modern Western witchcraft religions. Tameran Witchcraft is any modern form of witchcraft based at least in part on ancient Egyptian witchcraft, including some forms of eclectic witchcraft and some forms of Wicca. Kemetic Witchcraft is an attempt to exactly recreate ancient Egyptian witchcraft, usually one particular time period in ancient Egyptian history.

 Paganism
Oiginally “pagan” was used as a term of derision by city dwellers in the Roman Empire to make fun of the more superstitious version of Hellenism (the Greek religion) practiced in rural areas (from Latin paganus for “rustic”).

When the Christians took military control of the Roman Empire, they quickly stamped out non-Christian religions in the cities, but many witches, Jews, Hellenists, Gnostics, Zoarastrians, Mithraists, Hermeticists, and those of many other smaller religions fled to the mountains or to India or China. The Christians picked up the term “pagan” and applied it to all non-Christian religions, including witchcraft.

Later, Muslims (members of the religion Islam) borrowed the word “pagan” to mean all non-Muslims, including witches.

While some Christians continued to use “pagan” to mean non-Christian and some Muslims continued to use “pagan” to mean non-Muslim, the word came to mean any person who didn’t worship the “One God”, that is, everyone except for Christians, Muslims, and Jews. [NOTE: This is the most common meaning.]

Another variation of “pagan” was everyone except for Christians, Muslims, Jews, and atheists.

And then yet another variation was everyone except for Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and members of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucionism, and similar aesthetic Asian religions (that is, “pagan” meaning those who are members of pantheistic, polytheistic, and/or witchcraft/shamanic religions).

“Pagan” could also mean anyone who wasn’t religious in a society completely dominated by either Christians or Muslims, that is, atheists, agnostics, and “wayward” members of Christianity or Islam, whichever was dominant.

And in recent decades, the term “pagan” has often been used as a shorter version of “Neo-Pagan”, including witches.

 Christian Witches
There are many Christian Witches right now today — and have been for as long as the Christian Church has existed.

But the official Roman Catholic position is that Witchcraft (of any kind) is heresy — and they used to put Christian Witches to death for it.

Some modern Wiccans honor Jesus as their male God and honor Mary (or Isis, who is also known as the Black Madonna) as their female Goddess. There are Witches that only worship the “official” Christian trinity, or just Jesus, or just the Christian God. And there are Witches that combine worship of Jesus with other Gods and/or Goddesses.

You have to decide in your own heart what you think is right for you.…

 Natural Witches
A natural Witch is someone who has a natural Witch talent. If you are a natural Witch, your natural Witch talent will become obvious. Usually this happens fairly early in life, but it can be delayed until late in life.

The most common natural Witch talent is having dreams that foretell the future. Another common natural Witch talent is being naturally accurate with runes, tarot, or other divination.

Anybody can become a Witch, but you have to be born with a Witch talent to be a natural Witch.

If you have a natural Witch talent, learning about Witchcraft and magic will help you learn how to control your natural Witch talent.

 Becoming a Witch
Becoming a Witch is pretty much the same as becoming a Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jainist, etc. If in your heart you know it is right for you, then you make the decision to become a Witch.

While there are some forms of Witchcraft that have specific entry requirements, most forms of Witchcraft are a personal decision. If you believe that you are a Witch, then you are a Witch.

You can perform meditation or other ritual to help you determine if Witchcraft is right for you.

 "Oh hell...where do I sign up?"

You can also perform some kind of initiation ritual. Some Witchcraft traditions have specific initiation rituals. Other Witchcraft traditions call for the individual to create their own initiation ritual. And some Witchcraft traditions have no initiation at all.

It is best to learn about Witchcraft from a practicing Witch, but many Witches are self-taught.

Well, I guess with so many magic spells flowing around...there's bound to be an increase in the frog population.

 Modern day Children Sacrifices in the UK
Children are being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifices, a confidential report for the Metropolitan Police suggests.

Children are being beaten and even murdered after being labeled as witches by pastors, the report leaked to BBC Radio 4's Today programme said.

Police face a "wall of silence" in investigations because of fear and mistrust among the groups involved.

It follows the case of a girl who was accused of witchcraft by her guardians.

Three people, including the girl's aunt, were convicted of trying to "beat the devil out of" the un-named 10-year-old - originally from Angola.

The report was commissioned by the Met after the death of Victoria Climbie in February 2000 and because of concerns over so-called faith crimes.

The 10-month probe was also intended to be part of efforts to "open a dialogue" with Asian and African communities to prevent child abuse in the London boroughs of Hackney and Newham.

Information was gathered with the help of social workers, human rights lawyers and race relations experts from within these ethnic minority groups.

Today programme reporter Angus Stickler, who obtained the police report due to be published later this month, described it as "absolutely chilling".

"The most gruesome details come from the African communities," he said.
'Dead meat'

It said that people who are desperate seek out churches to cast spells for them.

"Members of the workshop said for spells to be powerful it required a sacrifice of a male child unblemished by circumcision," the report said.

Contributors said boys were being trafficked into the UK for this purpose, but did not give details because they said they feared they would be "dead meat" if they told any more. There were also claims that youngsters were being smuggled into the UK as domestic slaves and for men with HIV who believed if they had sex with a child they would be cleansed.

One HIV outreach worker who spoke to the BBC News website said a small minority of Africans who came to his sessions had begun to mention this as a possible solution to their problems.

The authors of the report point out that these claims are only allegations.

They also claim that children could be in "serious and possible life-threatening situations." It is not clear how widespread the practices are within African communities, but those working with minority groups suggest it is fairly small-scale.

The report also spoke of a wide gulf between child protection agencies and those in the communities involved, which means people are reluctant to get in touch with the authorities. Police described this as a "wall of silence" prompted by concerns that individuals would be "betraying" their family, community and faith if they spoke out.

It also acknowledged the sensitivity of the issue as the abuse was a product of individuals' faith and beliefs.

Independent adviser to the Met John Azah said that since the Climbie case and the ritualistic murder of a black child known as "Adam", there were concerns the police were only touching the "tip of the iceberg". "A few weeks ago the Met put out a number of 300 black children missing from schools.

"There's no evidence that any of these children have been traced.

"Therefore perhaps there's something terrible happening out there which we are not aware."

This was why the police, quite rightly, were doing quite a lot of work to see if children were being murdered or not, he added.

But Dr William Les Henry, a lecturer in sociology at Goldsmith's College, said there was an element of racism about the report.

He said: "The model that they're based on, they always seem to base their models on the fact that Africans are less civilized, less rational, so their whole systems of rationality are irrational."

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said it was important countries worked together to tackle crimes related to people-trafficking.

 Mutilation
The Met had a special unit to address these particular issues, he said.

"But it's classically an issue, like all people-trafficking issues, where people are being moved across the whole world, essentially for money, by very substantial criminal organizations."

The challenge was how could the organizations most effectively be contested, he said. The report called for the social services department to determine how many faith organizations exist and where they are situated.

But Pastor Nims Obunge from the Freedom's Arc Church emphasized that most African churches were entirely legitimate and overseen within a wider structure.

"We do not condone any form of cultish practices and I think we need to define the difference between a cult and a church, that's an important thing and I'm a bit wary when we use the term 'church' in a loose fashion."

The report also urged the Met to highlight the work of child protection agencies to try to encourage the reporting of crimes. (Pic on left of Sita Kasanga who was one of three people that tortured a girl she believed to be a witch)

The Met said the report was drawn up after workshops debating issues such as female genital mutilation, physical chastisement, forced marriage and faith-related child abuse were held.

It added: "The recommendations in the report are being carefully considered at the highest levels in the MPS in conjunction with partner agencies and community groups."

Human sacrifice; the act of homicide (the killing of one or several human beings) in the context of a religious ritual (ritual killing). Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals (animal sacrifice) and of religious sacrifice in general.

Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history. Victims were typically ritually killed in a manner that is supposed to please or appease gods, spirits or the deceased. Closely related practices found in some tribal societies are cannibalism and headhunting.

By the Iron Age, with the associated developments in religion (the Axial Age), human sacrifice was becoming less throughout the Old World, and came to be widely looked down upon as barbaric already in pre-modern times (Classical Antiquity). Blood libel is a false charge of ritual killing against such taboos.

Even if not ostensibly connected with religion, infliction of capital punishment is often highly ritualized and thus difficult to distinguish from human sacrifice. Death by burning historically has aspects of both human sacrifice (Wicker Man, Tophet) and capital punishment (Brazen bull, Tamar, tunica molesta). Execution by burning of Christian heretics was introduced by Justinian I in the 6th century. Detractors of the death penalty may consider all forms of capital punishment as secularized variants of human sacrifice. Similarly, lynching, pogroms and genocides are sometimes interpreted as human sacrifice following Theodor W. Adorno.

In modern times, some actually disbelieve that the ubiquitous practice of animal sacrifice has virtually disappeared (or has been re-cast in terms of ritual slaughter) from all major religions, human sacrifice has become very rare indeed. This is far from true and animal sacrifices occur daily throughout the Hindu regions of Nepal and India. Another misconception is that most religions condemn the practice and present-day secular laws treat it as murder.

Nonetheless it is still occasionally seen today, with reports from the 2000s from India and Sub-Saharan Africa (muti killings), but also isolated cases in the immigrant African Diaspora in Europe.

The idea of human sacrifice has its roots in deep prehistory, in the evolution of human behaviour. Mythologically, it is closely connected, or even fundamentally identical with animal sacrifice. Walter Burkert has argued for such a fundamental identity of animal and human sacrifice in the connection of a hunting hypothesis which traces the emergence of human religious behaviour to the beginning of behavioral modernity in the Upper Paleolithic (roughly 50,000 years ago).There has been a lot of debate on the primacy of myth vs. ritual, and the presence of a myth of human sacrifice should not be taken as necessarily implying the historical existence of the actual practice: human sacrifice may be taken as the re-enactment of an older myth, or conversely a myth can be taken as a memory of an earlier practice of human sacrifice.

Theistic rationalizations of human sacrifice may involve the idea of offering to deities as payment for favorable interventions in an event of special importance, to forestall unfavorable events, or to purchase disclosures about the physical world.

 Killing for 'Mother' Kali
For the magic to work, the killing had to be done just right. If the goddess were to grant Khudu Karmakar the awesome powers he expected from a virgin's death, the victim had to be willing, had to know what was happening, watch the knife, and not stop it. But even tranquilizers couldn't lull 15-year-old Manju Kumari to her fate. In his police confession, Karmakar says his wife, daughter and three accomplices had to gag Manju and pin her down on the earthen floor before the shrine. In ritual order, Karmakar wafted incense over her, tore off her blue skirt and pink T shirt, shaved her, sprinkled her with holy water from the Ganges and rubbed her with cooking fat. Then chanting mantras to the "mother" goddess Kali, he sawed off Manju's hands, breasts and left foot, placing the body parts in front of a photograph of a blood-soaked Kali idol. Police say the arcs of blood on the walls suggest Manju bled to death in minutes.

Human sacrifice has always been an anomaly in India. Even 200 years ago, when a boy was killed every day at a Kali temple in Calcutta, blood cults were at odds with a benign Hindu spiritualism that celebrates abstinence and vegetarianism. But Kali is different. A ferocious slayer of evil in Hindu mythology, the goddess is said to have an insatiable appetite for blood. With the law on killing people more strictly enforced today, ersatz substitutes now stand in for humans when sacrifice is required. Most Kali temples have settled on large pumpkins to represent a human body; other followers slit the throats of two-meter-tall human effigies made of flour, or of animals such as goats.

In secret ceremonies, however, the grizzly practice lives on in India. Quite simply, say the faithful known as tantrics Kali looks after those who look after her, bringing riches to the poor, revenge to the oppressed and newborn joy to the childless. So far this year, police have recorded at least one case of ritual killing a month. In January, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, a 24-year-old woman hacked her three-year-old son to death after a tantric sorcerer supposedly promised unlimited earthly riches. In February, two men in the eastern state of Tripura beheaded a woman on the instructions of a deity they said appeared in their dreams promising hidden treasures. Karmakar killed Manju in Atapur village in Jharkhand state in April. The following month, police dug up the remains of two sisters, aged 18 and 13, in Bihar, dismembered with a ceremonial sword and offered to Kali by their father. Last week on the outskirts of Bombay, maize seller Anil Lakshmikant Singh, 33, beheaded his neighbor's nine-year-old son to save his marriage on the advice of a tantric. Said Singh: "He promised that a human sacrifice would end all my miseries."

Far from ancient barbarisms that refuse to die, sacrifice and sorcery are making a comeback. Sociologists explain the millions who now throng the two main Kali centers in eastern India, at Kamakhya and Tarapith, as what happens when the rat race that is India's future meets the superstitions of its past. Sociologist Ashis Nandy says: "You see your neighbor doing well, above his caste and position, and someone tells you to get a child and do a secret ritual and you can catch up." Adds mysticism expert Ipsita Roy Chakaraverti: "It's got nothing to do with real mysticism or with spiritualism. It comes down to pure and simple greed." Tarapith in particular is a giant building site of new hotels, restaurants and stalls selling plastic swords and postcards of Kali's severed feet. Judging by the visitors here, Kali appeals to both rich and poor: the rows of SUVs parked outside four-star hotels belong to the ranks of businessmen and politicians lining up with their goats behind penniless pilgrims. ("The blood never dries at Tarapith," whispers one villager.)

There are no human sacrifices at the temple these days. But the mystique of ritual killing is so powerful that even those who actually don't perform it claim to do so. In their camp in the cremation grounds beside the temple, a throng of tantrics tout for business by competing to be as spooky as possible, lining their mud-walled temples with human skulls and telling tall tales of human sacrifice. "I cut off her head," says 64-year-old Baba Swami Vivekanand of a girl he says he raised from birth. "We buried the body and brought the head back, cooked it and ate it." He pauses to demand a $2 donation. "Good story, no?" While most of this is innocent, some followers, like Karmakar, are inevitably emboldened to take their quest for power to the extreme. Karmakar, like many others, was caught. But in the dust-bowl villages of India, where superstition reigns and blood has a dark authority, the question is how many other "holy men" have found that ultimate power still rests in the murderous magic of a virgin sacrifice.

 Pagan Orgies to Human Sacrifice: The Bizarre Origins of Christmas
By Kristi Harrison.

Why the 25th of December? Christmas was not, as it turns out, miraculously handed down as a fully formed holiday, complete with wrapped gifts and blinking lights. Rather, it is a rich tapestry woven from countless inexplicable and pointless customs.

Why December 25th? The Bible doesn't give a lot of clues as to what time of the year the supposed birth of Jesus happened (i.e., "they met many travelers along the way, for it was just three days before the final game of the NFL Season") So, why December 25th? No one knows for sure. One likely explanation is that early church leaders needed a holiday to distract Christians from the many pagan revelries occurring in late December. One of the revelries was The Saturnalia, a week-long festival celebrating the Romans' favorite agricultural god, Saturn. From December 17 until December 23, tomfoolery and pagan hijinks ensued, and by hijinks we mean gluttonous feasting, drunkenness, gambling and public nudity.

The Romans would also switch roles between masters and slaves for the occasion, so not only did the slaves get to pathetically lower their own sense of self-worth by participating in the charade of freedom, they also got to wear a Pileus (roughly translated, "Freedom Hat").
One other pagan celebration that might have given Christmas its date was Natalis Solis Invincti, which roughly translates to "Birthday of the Invincible Sun God," giving it officially the most awesome holiday name ever.

By the 12th century, the Christian Church had incorporated a few of the less-sinful pagan traditions into the 12 days of Christmas. We only wish the public nudity could have been left in ... maybe on the 10th or 11th day. Along with the gambling. And the drinking. Then again, it appears everyday is Saturnalia in Vegas so maybe we'll just go there instead. Our favorite morbidly obese, undiagnosed diabetic trespasser is actually a bastardization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, which was actually a bastardization of Saint Nikolas, the holier-than-thou Turkish bishop for whom the icon was named.

The actual saint was not, in fact, famous for making dispirited public appearances at shopping malls. Rather, he was known for throwing purses of gold into a man's home in the cover of night so that the man wouldn't have to sell his daughters into prostitution.

Later, Martin Luther invented his own Christmas symbol, Kristkindl, as part of his rejection of all things Catholic. What he came up with is by far the gayest of all Christmas symbols, as Kristkindl is portrayed as a "blond, radiant veiled child figure with golden wings, wearing a flowing white robe and a sparkling jeweled crown, and carrying a small Christmas tree or wand." This is why you sometimes hear Santa referred to as "Kris Kringle."

Not surprisingly, most of the world has rejected his weird-ass version and over the years we've cobbled together our own Santa Claus: part Saint Nikolas, part Sinterklaas and part Norse god Odin. By the 19th century American writers were describing Santa as wearing a red sash with a skin-tight red suit with white spotted fur at the fringes. Writers at the time were still calling Santa an "elf," including Clement Clark Moore in his famous poem The Night Before Christmas. Perhaps the image of a dwarf-sized intruder seemed less threatening than a Chris Farley-sized version, but we're pretty sure we'd be more likely to piss our pants if an overly jolly costumed dwarf magically appeared and started hopping around our living room floor. The little person might just end up with a bullet in the head. Not that there's anything wrong with frolicking little people with a propensity for wearing elf garb, of course. Except that there totally is.

Some of you are disappointed that we explained Santa without mentioning that the modern image of him was invented for a Coca-Cola ad, as the Internet has probably told you. That's because it isn't true. Come on, guys. Not everything in the Western World is based on some crass marketing campaign.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, however, is; This signature character in Christmas folklore, with his own song and movies and a mountain of yearly merchandise, was slapped together by the Montgomery Ward marketing team for a coloring book they were giving out. Prior to inventing Rudolph, they used to just buy the books and hand them out each Christmas, but in 1939 they figured it'd be cheaper to have one of their guys draw one up in his spare time. It's not like toddlers are great at detecting quality in these things.

So copywriter Robert L. May wrote it up, and created what turned out to be a marketing bonanza ... of which he didn't get paid a penny. A few years later the company actually let May have the rights to Rudolph, which was either an act of amazing corporate generosity or else they just assumed the Rudolph fad was over. After that, May's brother-in-law wrote up the song that you've no doubt heard every Christmas since you were born. It became a huge hit and the Rudolph marketing empire was born, along with a permanent addition to the Santa legend.

That's right; Europe brought their real-life saints, Norse gods and rich cultural traditions to the table, and America slapped on a promotion from a department store. Who knows, maybe 300 years from now Santa's sleigh will be towed by Energizer Bunnies, long after society has forgotten what an "Energizer" is. And, maybe Santa will sport a cheap cardboard crown and a creepy frozen grin.

Question: What customary Christmas holiday decoration bases its origins in ritualistic human sacrifice?

Answer: The Christmas tree!

Back in the pagan day, all inanimate objects were fair game for worship. Trees, rocks, mountains, funny shaped sticks that look like phalluses, whatever. So supposedly some of the Norsemen got it in their heads to worship a thunder god named Thor by ritualistically sacrificing humans and animals at the tree they designated "Thor's Oak."

However the tree did not, according to legend, spring out of the ground with little blinking lights and tin foil on it's branches. The thing with decorating the tree goes as far back as the 16th century, when people in Germany used to decorate their trees with apples, a tradition we can only assume stemmed from some crooked tree salesman who ran out of apple trees one year and wouldn't admit it. Other decorations included nuts and cheeses which again appears to be the same salesman testing the gullibility of his clients.

A guy brought the tradition to America in the 1800s, and when we say "a guy" we literally know who it was: a German immigrant named August Imgard. He was the first to stick little candy canes on it, and to put a star at the top. Whatever German strand of mental imbalance caused him to do that, this guy's spur-of-the-moment decoration idea now utterly pervades the imagery of the holiday. He was just a very bored German dude that needed a place to hang his candy canes.

We can go on and on about how different Christmas would be without him, but of course his contribution pales in comparison to St. Boniface. Without him, when little Timmy runs down the stairs this Christmas the only present he would find would be the gift of human sacrifice.

Merry Christmas!

 Mass human sacrifice unearthed in Peru
News Article; 16:10 04 October 2002
NewScientist.com news service; Emma Young

The ancient sacrificed remains of 200 fishermen had been excavated from a beach in Peru. Archaeologists believe they were kneeling, tied and blindfolded, facing the waves, then stabbed through the heart as an offering by their conquerors to Ni, god of the sea.

The grisly find represents the biggest case of human sacrifice discovered in South America. Hector Walde,