Is sacrificing dead or alive?

QUESTION Do any religions still have animal sacrifice?

Adherents of santeria still practise such sacrifice. Originating in 19th- century Cuba, it combines the Yoruba religion of Western Africa and Iberian Catholicism.

It was developed by African slaves whose Cuban slave masters discouraged the practice of their native religions.

through animal sacrifice, spiritual emissaries of their creator, Olodumare, restores adherents’ positive life processes and wellbeing.

eating the sacrificed animal is considered to be sharing with the Orisha spirits, who consume only the animal’s blood, while the worshippers eat the meat.

sacrificial animals include chickens (the most common), pigeons, doves, ducks, guinea pigs, goats, sheep and turtles. the U.s. supreme Court has declared the practice to be constitutional.

some Muslims also sacrifice animals. One of the two holiest events in the Muslim calendar, eid al-Adha, commemorates the willingness of the prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son at God’s request. In some societies it is marked by the sacrifice of a cow. Brian Coalmore, Cowthorpe, N. Yorks.

QUESTION Every Breath You Take is often played at weddings, yet it appears to be a song about a stalker. What other songs have been misconstrued?

FUrther to earlier answers, years ago, what’s now BBC radio tees had a sunday request programme. every Father’s day there were many calls for Puccini’s Oh My Beloved Father. But the girl in the song is begging her dad to approve of her handsome boyfriend, whom she adores. If not, she says she’ll drown herself. James Swales, Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.