Sacrifice Day

On Monday our neighbors celebrated the Feast of the Sacrifice.  We were invited to watch and see what all the excitement was about.  Our neighborhood sacrificed six cows.  Hoping you are not to squeamish here are some photos.  The first being the most graphic ... sorry!

This guy was in charge of separating the head.  And he was doing so with a hatchet.  I tried to get a picture of him with the ax at the top of its swing but finally gave up.  He was too fast.  He was working at that particular job with a great degree of gusto all while wearing a motorcycle helmet.  Pretty cool.  Today a friend told me no one working there was a professional butcher, everyone was an amateur.  So I still don't know if professional butchers use hatchets or not.  I think I would.
The insides were cleaned out, then it was skinned and the head and legs were removed.  This is what you could call "preleather".  Its different from pleather.

This is a while into the process.  The separated parts were taken to other stations for further cleaning.

The leg bones go here when all meat possible has been removed.  They boil the bones for soup -- see I'm not crazy!! These big pots are full of rice.  If you remove the Hispanics and Orientals from Glasgow this pot would equal the amount of rice the whole city eats in a month I would guess.  They needed multiple pots just for lunch!
The end result.  The meat is taken, packaged, and distributed to the poor.  Now you feel kind of bad for thinking they were mean to the cows don't you?!?  Anyway as Bethany says, "I'm OK eating dead animals, I just don't want to see it."  Don't think of the hatchet, just keep your mind on the gravy!!