Editing Animal sacrifice (section)

==Celtic peoples==
There is evidence that ancient [[Celts|Celtic people]] sacrificed animals, almost always livestock or working animals, as part of [[ancient Celtic religion]].<ref name="Green94-96">{{Cite book |last=Green |first=Miranda |author-link=Miranda Aldhouse-Green |title=Animals in Celtic Life and Myth |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |pages=94–96}}</ref> The idea seems to have been that ritually transferring a life-force to the [[Celtic Otherworld|Otherworld]] pleased the gods and established a channel of communication between the worlds. Animal sacrifices could be acts of thanksgiving, appeasement, to ensure good health and fertility, or as a means of [[divination]]. It seems that some animals were offered wholly to the gods (by burying or burning), while some were shared between gods and humans (part eaten and part set aside).<ref name="Green94-96"/>

Archaeologists have found evidence of animal sacrifice at some Gaulish and British [[Nemeton|sanctuaries]],<ref>Green, pp.109-110</ref> and at the Irish site [[Hill of Uisneach|Uisneach]].<ref>Schot, Roseanne (2006). "[https://www.academia.edu/12163521/Uisneach_Midi_a_med%C3%B3n_%C3%89renn_a_prehistoric_cult_centre_and_royal_site_in_Co._Westmeath Uisneach Midi a medón Érenn: a prehistoric cult centre and royal site in Co. Westmeath]". ''Journal of Irish Archaeology'', issue 15. pp.39-46</ref> Accounts of Celtic animal sacrifice come from Roman and Greek writers. [[Julius Caesar]] and [[Strabo]] wrote of the [[Gauls]] burning animal sacrifices in a large wickerwork figure, known as a [[wicker man]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |pages=60–61}}</ref> while [[Pliny the Elder]] wrote of [[druid]]s performing a '[[ritual of oak and mistletoe]]' which involved sacrificing two white bulls.<ref>{{cite book |last=Koch |first=John |author-link=John T. Koch |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=612}}</ref>

Some animal sacrifice or ritual slaughter continued among Celtic peoples long after they converted to Christianity. Until the 19th century, on [[St. Martin's Day]] (11 November) in rural Ireland a rooster, goose or sheep would be slaughtered and some of its blood sprinkled on the [[Threshold (door)|threshold]] of the house. It was offered to [[Martin of Tours|Saint Martin]],<ref name="macculloch">MacCulloch, John Arnott (1911). ''The Religion of the Ancient Celts''. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/rac/rac21.htm Chapter 18: Festivals].</ref> and was eaten as part of a feast.<ref>[[Ronald Hutton|Hutton, Ronald]]. ''The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain''. Oxford University Press, 1996. p.386</ref> Bull sacrifices at the time of the [[Lughnasa]] festival were recorded as late as the 18th century at [[Cois Fharraige]] in Ireland (where they were offered to [[Crom Dubh]]) and at [[Loch Maree]] in Scotland (where they were offered to Saint [[Máel Ruba]]).<ref>[[Máire MacNeill|MacNeill, Máire]]. ''The Festival of Lughnasa: A Study of the Survival of the Celtic Festival of the Beginning of Harvest''. Oxford University Press, 1962. pp.407, 410</ref>

Many scholars believe that the Irish and [[Isle of Man|Manx]] tradition of killing, elaborately displaying and burying a [[Eurasian wren|wren]] on [[Saint Stephen's Day]] is a survival of animal sacrifice (see [[Wren Day]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=Elizabeth Atwood |title=Hunting the Wren: Transformation of Bird to Symbol |date=1997 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |pages=100, 108–109, 117, 123 |quote=The custom of hunting and killing the wren is undoubtedly related to practices of animal sacrifice of pre-Christian origin}}</ref><ref name="Armstrong 161">{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Edward |author1-link=Edward Allworthy Armstrong |title=The Folklore of Birds |date=1958 |publisher=Collins |pages=161, 166 |quote=However, there is much to suggest that the Wren Hunt was sacrificial. The bird was reverenced but killed at one season only, the feathers were regarded as talismans, the body was sometimes buried with respect, the chief human actor was regarded as in some sense a king, and the bird itself was given a royal title.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stewart |first1=Robert |title=Pagan Imagery in English Folksong |date=1977 |publisher=Humanities Press |page=19 |quote=it is usually accepted that the wren-king is likely to be a form of symbolism or substitution for the human sacrificial victim.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Muller |first1=Sylvie |title=The Irish Wren Tales and Ritual: To Pay or Not to Pay the Debt of Nature |journal=Béaloideas: The Journal of the Folklore of Ireland Society |date=1996 |volume=64/65 |pages=147–151}}</ref>