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It’s the annual “pig-chopping” festival in the Vietnamese town of Nem Thuong, some 25 miles north of Hanoi. The festival is held in honor of the local guardian deity, Doan Thuong, on the sixth day of each lunar new year. The celebrations include traditional festival features, such as a parade and live music, but one part of the ceremony is not for the lily-livered.
According to Yahoo! News India, a live pig is shuttled around the village before being placed supine on the ground. Assistants hold ropes attached to the pig’s legs, spreading the animal’s appendages apart to expose its belly. A man wielding a large blade then chops the pig into two messy halves, and the villagers rush to smear the blood on bank notes, hoping for good pecuniary luck in the new year.
Activists inside Vietnam and abroad have condemned the practice, of course. We would like to think P.E.T.A. has had a talk or two with the village honcho over…a breakfast of bacon with ham slices mixed in. You know.
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