Date:19/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/19/stories/2006101902560200.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur

Sacrifice for son's future

Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR: Parents having one son in Somandepalli, a mandal headquarters village, are making a beeline to a village deity's temple since Friday last and sacrificing hens to the goddess believing that it would ensure a good future to their sons.

According to information reaching here the blind belief has also spread to the surrounding villages and many parents are also reaching the temple barefoot with their lone sons and sacrificing birds.

They offer birds to the goddess and apply the blood on the forehead of their lone sons.

An estimated 100 birds are being sacrificed every day to the deity. The sacrifices went up to about 200 on Tuesday considered as the auspicious day for such sacrifices. The parents visiting the temple told newspersons that the sacrifices being made to the goddess would augur well with their sons' future.