NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Indian police have charged 80 people for burying children alive in an ancient Hindu ceremony known as "the festival of pits."

The ceremony, in which children -- some less than a year old -- are buried alive briefly and then dug up, happened on Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state, The Asian Age reported on Thursday.

Authorities have been trying for years to stop it and people found guilty face up to three years in jail and/or a fine of 5000 rupees ($114).

Every two years, parents who have vowed to bury their first-born if they are blessed with a child, take part in the Kuzhimattru Thiru Vizha ceremony.

The children are drugged to make them unconscious and placed in shallow "graves" in temple courtyards.

The pits are covered with leaves and dirt and the children are pulled out after Hindu priests chant a brief prayer -- lasting up to a minute.

God is love.

Cloudbuster said:

God is.....whatever dumb people are told to believe he is.



Do these people not ask themselves "why would god want us to hurt our children?"

??

Cloudbuster said:

Love is God

RocknRollDave said:

Just shut up and eat your greens.

kisscamille said:

Someone ought to write a song with those lyrics

kisscamille said:

Aren't you overreacting?

We drown our children alive...briefly in an ancient Catholic ceremony known as "Baptism"

Differnent cultures have different belief systems that are drummed in from birth

who are we to say they are fucked up.

not to my taste and I wouldn't put my kids through it but thats me, If i had been bought up in that part of the world i would probably see it as the right and natural thing to do

just to be clear that this ritual is not a widespread hindu ritual - only a small group of hindus carry it out in a certain area of India.

There's no killing or physical injury caused to the children.

obviously it seems weird / cruel to us, but like pl0ppy said, there's a helluva lot of stuff that westerners do which would seem just as weird, if not more.

Not that i'm justifying it as okay for people to do - clearly harm to children can occur in lots of different ways, and it's pretty obvious the Indian police think so too.

TheFrog said:

1) Hanging a dead tree in your living room adorned with blinking lights.
2) Circumcision (orignally practiced by puritans to prevent masturbation--a sin against God). Circumcision continues today, thought the religous aspect has been dropped.
3) Snake Charming by certain Baptist worshipers in the Deep South.
4) Re-enacted "REAL" crucifictions in Latin American Countries by volunteers willing to go through the same experience as Christ.

The list goes on and on and on.

AsianBomb777 said:

Didn't work, did it.

TheFrog said:

No.


Masturbation is the single biggest drain on me managing my time.

It have to work my entire schedule and life around it.

AsianBomb777 said:

So that means you wank more than you post on the org.





Dude, you must be raw!

TheFrog said:

Please, with your right hand, you could squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond.


emoticon edit
[Edited 4/16/05 9:26am]

AsianBomb777 said:

the truth hurts.

PANDURITO said:

That's sprinkling, not submersion.

In Christian churches it is brief submersion but only when you are older and make a decision yourself to participate in it.