Gadhimai Festival: Thousands of Animal Sacrifices Raise Concerns about Cultural Practices

December 2, 2014

Hundreds of designated butchers work into the evening after a full day of buffalo sacrifices at the Gadhimai Festival on Friday, November 28, 2014. BARIYARPUR, NEPAL (NOV. 28, 2014) A crowd of 2.5 million assembled in the remote, bordertown of Bariyarpur, Nepal leading up to the sacrificial days of Gadhimai Festival on November 28. Known as the largest ritualistic sacrifice of animals in the world, Gadhimai has attracted a fair share of media attention, protest,...

A Nation Pauses to Celebrate with their Families and Honor the Mother Goddess

October 10, 2014

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Kites soar above the houses of the sprawling city of Kathmandu and its surrounding hillside villages. Children form lines at the base of towering traditional bamboo swings. Local buses, bearing the weight of hundreds of passengers, baskets of produce, and live goats, run back and forth to local communities, brining families together. City market spaces and squares display hundreds of goats for sale, and butchers busily chop apart blocks of...

Loughrea residents celebrate their heritage with a Medieval Festival

September 1, 2014

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A pig roasts on a spit as a trio of musicians wearing medieval dresses recruit enthusiastic dancers to join in on their song and dance. Two young ladies on stilts saunter through the crowd, showering the excited children with bubbles. A blacksmith slaves away on his bellows, building a fire to demonstrate his craft. A crew of men wearing pieces of armor and weaponry teach an assembled crowd about…