The locals who held traditional views insisted on keeping the custom intact, while others advocated stopping the act of crudely against animal. The festival continued unhindered as the traditional view won the debate.
As part of the celebration, on Friday, a group of youths from Newar community threw a female goat into the pond in front of local temple of goddess Rudranyani and let it drown. After the goat was dead, over one and half dozen of youths entered the pond to claim the dead goat. [break]
Hundreds of people had gathered around the pond to celebrate and observe the festival.
“This is our tradition. We have continued it to save our culture,” said Shwayambhuram Dangol, a local. Locals claimed that the tradition started at around 12th century after local children started to die falling into the pond. To save the children, the locals started the tradition of throwing a live female goat into the pond to appease the divine power.
Some of the locals have been insisting to continue the festival terming it as the pride of Khokana, while others say that the festival has earned a bad name for Khokana as a "cruel village."
“When traditional and modern thoughts clash, the former has always proved resilient, and therefore the festival is likely to continue,” said Siddicharan Maharjan, another local. “Other alternatives to the killing of goat were also thought of, but they could not be implemented," he added.
“I don´t like to see a goat being killed mercilessly. We have kept mum as we can not raise voice against the long held religious ceremony,” said a 78 years old local Astha Bahadur Dangol.
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