10 Shocking Rituals Involving Human Sacrifice

10 Shocking Rituals Involving Human Sacrifice

Ever since mankind has evolved on this planet, the various instincts and emotions, both concealed and conspicuous have started outpouring along with their behavior and these get reflected through various acts. Some of these acts have taken the shape of rites and rituals and it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that men have always been revolving around rituals in some way or another, given the religious underpinnings. Rituals, as we know, are activities which have been performed by people with a belief since ancient times that are still existent. If we talk about rituals, what we usually connote are the ones associated with religion.

Religious rituals have hogged mankind all throughout and it has two features- one, it is sober as in offering prayers, give and take of ritualistic materials, etc., whereas some others have taken an animalistic form such as human sacrifice. Human sacrifice is an act of killing humans, usually for the sake of appeasing gods and goddesses. It has been seen carrying out in many different occasions and cultures for various purposes and in varying degrees mostly for religious purpose although not all of the rituals have religious base. But such a barbaric and brutal act that it is, it hardly seems to be holding any purpose which is worthy. This dates back from pre-historic times where people’s purpose was to satisfy their gods in order to receive fortune and good luck from them. Slaughtering humans for the mere sake of appeasement of the gods and also their rulers (which has no apparent rationale) reeks of obnoxious superstitions.

1. Buried Alive

The word “bury” itself suffocates. Talking about the weird ritual that is given, in the early pharaonic civilization, the deceased Pharaohs used to be buried in a tomb along with a few of his servants who were actually alive. This was done so as Pharaohs be served by his servants in his afterlife. Archaeological evidences say that the servants were induced some drugs while they were made to enter the death tomb.

2. Gift-Giving And Decapitation

During the early times in Dahomey (now Ghana) in West Africa, there took place a grand celebration among people which involved the discussion of gift-giving and mass human slaughtering among the leaders of that place. It was their yearly celebration where numerous slaves, war captives and criminals were killed in order to honor the dead kings of Dahomey. They were basically killed by decapitation and hence, this ceremony was termed as “yearly head business”.

3. Thugs With Handkerchiefs

Thugs were fanatical religious groups who were found especially in India and were infamous for their act of assassinations which they so ardently carried out in the name of goddess Kali. These religious fanatics traveled in groups throughout India and performed their ritualistic killings to please goddess Kali. They did so by firstly gaining confidence of their victims and becoming pals and later robbed them off their valuable belongings at night by either strangling them with a handkerchief or a noose and buried the dead bodies.

4. Off The Cliff

The Mayan civilization was full of supreme believers and it was seen that Mayans had a strong believe in a divine being that, according to them lived within the limestone sinkholes. What they did was to push away their own people from those cliffs so that they gain enlightenment. They believed that people thrown there did not die but lived in the underworld. But of course this was not true as per the recent discoveries that excavated human bones of both young and old which were fractured.

5. Architecture's Snake

In the ancient Chinese civilization, one such sacrificial purpose was done to strengthen a building or any structure. Out of many such sacrifices, the one which is famous was the sacrifice of a crown prince, Ts’ai, who was killed in order to strengthen a dam!

6. Burned Alive

There have been references by the early Romans to widespread practice of human sacrifices by the Celtic Druids. Although we have heard of many forms of human sacrifice such as hangings, drowning, etc but the most infamous way was the ‘wicker man method’ which was practiced by the Druids. Here, a huge effigy in the shape of a human made of bamboos and hays was erected where breathing humans were kept inside and the effigy was put on fire. This was really brutal heinous.

7. Heart Removal/ Skinned Alive

The Aztecs, as you all know, were famous for the ritualistic sacrifices and the many offerings made to their various gods. Nevertheless, all of them involved barbaric acts, one of which demanded the removal of the heart from a living body of a person in the name of the sun god Huitzilopochtli. Another infamous act was that of weeping boys where they were tied to a post and then quivered with arrows until they are skinned by a priest. This offering was made to the god Tlaloc. Sacrifices made in the name of “Earth Mother” Teteonnian, females were skinned.

8. Widow Strangling

One of the worst rituals of human sacrifice is that of a strangulation of widowed women in Fiji after their husband’s demise. It placed its foundation on the belief that the deceased husbands should stay forever with their wives even after death. So following that belief, wives were also strangled to death and cremated along with their husbands by their own brothers as a part of the ritual.

9. Honor Suicides

This was what practiced in Japan for the sake of a ritual called Seppuku, a semi-suicidal ritual. It involved the killing of oneself (preferably a warrior) where he had to disembowel himself with a knife after all the ceremonial acts. Here, the samurai was bathed and worn a white robe and was fed his favourite meal. After that a knife was placed on his platter by which he had to stab himself dead. This was done to preserve the honor of his loss and to restore his family line.

10. Children In Pits

Relying on the sources of Phoenicians and Carthaginian civilizations, they were high on religious rituals and the inhuman way which they went, they offered sacrifices of children. It was done so as to protect the entire community and was regarded as the most extreme form of sacrificial act. The place where they were killed was called the ‘topheth’ or roasting place and offerings were made for the kings. Children were placed on the hand of a bronze statue of Cronus from where they rolled down and fell on a gaping pit of fire.