Tradition splashed tribal festival with animal blood

Myth left thousand dead and yet looking more. The sentence concerns the surprising tribal tradition, where festivals gets colorful with animal blood. The ancient indigenous belief of slaughtering innocent animal is heartwrenching concept of tribal festival.

The Sulia hillock of Orissa holds a popular tribal festival, Sulia Jatra. Dedicated to God Sulia, this festival is carried out on the second Tuesday of the Hindu Pousa month. Kondh tribes nestled in the foothills, has marked the occasion with mass slaughtering of animals particularly goat, buffaloes, cows and birds like crow, pegion etc. This hinterland came into notice when a report confirmed that around thousands of animals and birds were slaughtered sometime in the festival in 2005.

Tribal believe that the offering of fresh animal blood to their presiding deity, Sulia, will help them to lead a life of success and prosperity. The sacrificing time mainly stands around noon when the Sun is just overhead. Pilgrims drag the animals in the quaint pilgrimage center hand over them to the priest of the temple. The animals are sprayed with holy water and turmeric powder. With performing a short ritual and drum- beats animals are then slaughtered with sharp axes. After squeezing the fresh blood to be offered, the left over body part are carried by the villagers. It is believed that each one of the villager should have at least one piece of its cooked meat.

The festivals is also greatly celebrated in the tribal village of Bhubaneswar and Himachal Pradesh in India