Last Friday the Herald headlined a story about ritual goat killing in the city by Hindu citizens.
That’s news? Good God, it’s been an everyday event in Wellington for as long as I can remember.
The most notorious centre of this activity in the capital is Jubilee Road in Khandallah. Walk along it and you will hear the screams of goats being slaughtered most days of the week, usually interspersed with riotous female cackling.
Ferry Road in Days Bay is another Wellington location known for these rituals, so too Motuhara Road in Plimmerton and Marewa Place in Waikanae. It’s old hat in the capital and now goes unremarked upon.
The Herald’s Press Gallery personnel will hopefully put their naïve Auckland head office right about the capital’s well established animal sacrifice customs, moreso given the Gallery’s ritual of beginning each week by everyone swallowing a live gold-fish. This goes back to 1982 when trend-setter Jane Clifton made her Gallery debut and introduced the practise.
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YESTERYEAR FAITHS
Dominion-Post columnist Rosemary McLeod recently wrote about some yesteryear oddities I’d long forgotten about and which would doubtless puzzle young readers, if the Dom’ had any.
First, the practice of dangling a strip of rubber tied under the car’s rear which trailed along the road.
Back in the 1970s I’d say a tenth of cars had this. Rosemary says it was based on the belief it stopped travel sickness. She may be right although my memory is it was supposed to neutralise electrical problems.
She also recalled the less widespread practise of placing bottles of water on lawns, this supposedly stopping dogs peeing on them.
Still, when it comes to silly beliefs this stuff is trivial compared with religious faith.
6 Comments
Maybe I’m in isolation to protect me from the Hindus. I thought it was to kill me with covid.
No , it’s unlikely the covid will kill you, instead they will try to get you with economic ruin, brace yourself for more lock-downs, while Cindy parades about at these foreign rituals wearing Hindu attire.
Ha, the critical response, the narrative from the Herald is typical of prioritising worthy news, Hard even for Hindus to compute!!!
We appreciate your comments Bob. Well done.
Did Rosemary McLeod finally manage to steal a break from her incessant man-hating opion pieces and write something vaguely readable? Now that’s newsworthy.
From Wikipedia
“Harinegameshi
Naigamesha (Sanskrit: नैगमेष, Naigameśa), also known as Harinegameshi, is a goat-headed or deer-headed deity, associated with children. He also appears in Jain as well as Hindu traditions, associated with the war-god Kartikeya and childbirth.”
Satyrs in the suburbs.
I remember back in the 1960’s reading a sensational story on the front page of the then Truth Newspaper which outed a group of housewives in Whanganui who called themselves “Jaybirds” and the unexpurgated report declared these women did their housework in the nude!! “SHOCK HORROR”
My Mother was outraged, while Dad wanted to go visit friends in Whanganui…..
I remember the water bottles on lawns thing. It worked, too; I don’t ever recall seeing a water bottle with any evidence that a dog had peed on it.