Indra Likes Goat in Nepal

The story about Nepal Airlines sacrificing two goats to help remove troubles from its Boeing 757s sounds really funny at first, but I doubt it seemed that weird to anyone in Nepal.

For one thing, the caption but not the text of the article explains that a festival called Dasain is underway. And that during that festival, lots of people are evidently sacrificing goats and chickens to the local version of the Hindu sky god Indra. So it doesn't seems as if the airline just decided that a couple goats was the ticket to smooth sailing -- it also happens to be the time of year that everyone is thinking along the lines of sacrifices and harvest and such.

And what happened to the goats after they were killed? They were probably eaten as prasad, as blessed food.

So you have a festival time, some worship, and then something to eat! That's not so wacky, is it? I also hope (and assume) the airline checked out the Boeing carefully, either before of after the Indra help.