ritual sacrifice
Ceremonial blood offering
Ritual sacrifice is the killing of an animal or person as an offering to a deity, spirit, or supernatural force.
The practice appears across ancient cultures—Aztec human sacrifice, Hebrew burnt offerings, Greek animal sacrifice.
The term now often appears figuratively for something destroyed to appease authority or ideology: The project became a ritual sacrifice to budget cuts.
- offeringSomething presented or given
- blood offeringRitual gift of life fluid
- templeSacred worship structure
- scapegoatUnfairly blamed person
- deityWorshipped supernatural being
altar · high priest · priest · atonement · immolation · ceremony · Iphigenia · hecatomb · purification · blood · ancestor worship · ancient custom · covenant · propitiation · invocation · sanctity of life · gods · martyrdom
- religionChristianity, Islam, beliefs, Judaism, Hinduism
- ritualsceremony, blessing, prayer, baptism, christening
- ancient religiongods, goddesses, pantheon, deity, polytheism
- ancient practicesalchemy, astrology, bloodletting, mummification, sun worship
- ancient ritesburnt offering, burnt offerings, fertility rites, burial rites, death rites
- Mosaic lawMoses, Mosaic law, Ten Commandments, tablets of stone, commandment
ritual sacrificecapital punishment
Execution by legal authority
natural death · judicial execution · murder · assassination · accidental death
ritual sacrificedesecration
Violating something sacred
sacrilege · blasphemy · civil ceremony · commercial transaction
ritual sacrificebirth ceremony
Rite marking new life
fertility rite · baptism · healing ritual · resurrection · salvation