Editing Ọbatala (section)

== Offerings and rituals ==
In terms of offering to orishas, Female orishas (Iabás) "eat" female animals, while male Orishas (Borós) "eat" male animals. However, Obatala is the only male orisha who "eats" in the Iabás circle, thus accepting sacrifices of female animals in his honor. Bastide,<ref>[https://bdor.sibi.ufrj.br/bitstream/doc/361/1/313%20PDF%20-%20OCR%20-%20RED.pdf Rito Nagô] ufrj.br</ref> commented on the [[androgynous]] characteristics of Obatala as an explanation of why this orisha accepts female animals as offerings. According to some priests, however, Obatala does not have a sex, since, according to the myths, he is the Father of Creation. Obatala is therefore the equivalent of [[God]] in the catholic syncretism who also does not have a specific sex.<ref name="Léo Neto et al"/>

Unlike other Orisha, Obatala only accepts offerings cooked in [[honey]], as he has a distaste for [[palm oil|dende]] oil.<ref name="Léo Neto et al"/>

Like any other Orisha, Obatala does not specifically eat the offering himself, but consumes the energy of the offering, or [[Aṣẹ|Axé]]. The expression "eat" is used as a symbolism for a spiritual form of feeding. Orishas do not "come down" from the spiritual plane to eat (literally speaking) the animal being offered.<ref name="Léo Neto et al"/>

Traditionally speaking, for [[Animal sacrifice|sacrificial offerings]] to Obatala, considered an orixá-funfun (literally "white orisha"), the animals or their parts should be completely white, such as the white blood of the mollusk called Igbin ([[Lissachatina fulica|Achatina fulica]]).<ref name="Léo Neto et al"/>