Wednesday, December 06, 2006

The slaughter of the chicken


(Hainan 2006)

To prepare for the Thanksgiving ritual, chickens were sacrificed too.

I beg for your pardon. Sometimes I do not know whether these rituals were designed to offer to the gods, or to feed the humans. Perhaps if we were to probe deeper into the purpose behind every existing custom, we could better understand the values and way of thinking of that particular culture.

Questions kept rising in my mind: Do people follow traditions blindly at times that they lose sight of the original function behind a tradition? Would customs that origated years ago still be relevant to the current times?


To facilitate the removal of the feathers from the slaughtered chickens, hot water was needed. There was a pump to pump water into the vessels that you would see above. Then, the water would be drawn and be boiled.









Hours later, I don't find the chickens on the altar anymore. The chickens were cooked and served on plates.



This world is strange, and I think there is a lot to be done to understand how this world works.

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