Today is October1^st, the day widely acclaimed as the world Vegetarian Day. However, many might consider it to be worthless to observe this international day on the very first day of the Dashai festival. Dashai is one of the biggest festivals of Hindu religion. The fragrance of Dashai is already in the city. Today is 1^st day of Dashai. Everyone is welcoming Dashai with full of excitements. From this day known mostly as Gatasthapana, Dashai formally begins. Dashai festival is one such festival which makes me reflect about our cultures. More than joy, it brings sadness to me.

I can no longer listen to the sounds of animals and birds whose sounds I usually get so accustomed to. The sounds and cries of all those innocent animals that one can hear in the neighborhood can no longer be heard after few days from today. It’s inevitable that I am surely gonna miss all these fragile and pitiable creatures. What makes me more sadden is the sheer selfishness of all these neighbors who tend to these animals with timely food and water not out of their love but out of their desire to make them fat enough to supply different meat items later during the festival.

For the celebration and enjoyment, an animal sacrifice seems to have become compulsory trend. Many people hardly consider Dashai as Dashai until and unless the innocent beings are sacrificed and their blood is shaded. People even take loans just to own one or other animal so that they can show the society that they can also afford animal sacrifices. It’s quite appalling that people take it as a matter of pride to show how much meat they can purchase and consume during this festival. Needless to say, the business of meat tops all other businesses not only during Dashai but also in all other seasons.

Despite all these grim situations, I am the one who like to love the living beings of the world. For me, the culture of animal sacrifices is the stain to our civilization which always makes me feel bad for those pitiful creatures. I can’t help remembering my childhood days at my village Syangja where I used to celebrate this festival together with whole family members coupled with sacrifice of animals. I can remember it so vividly that I used to give up my daily meals and feel the pain of all those animals killed with whom I used to play and give grass and water to feed. Nowadays, I can at least take some breathe of peace as we don’t have the practice of sacrifice in our home.

According to the United Nations report "Livestock's Long Shadow " the meat industry is " one of the most contributors to the most serious environmental problems ,at every scale from local to global ," including problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution , water shortage and water pollution ,and loss of biodiversity ."
Being Green means being compassionate, caring and protecting the Earth and her inhabitants.

My mom often remarks that I don’t eat meet because she didn't love to eat meet when she was pregnant. More than this, I can see more reasons for my choice of vegetarian taste. The very reason which I can adhere to with much pride is my deep love for every living creatures of this world. If you believe me then animals are the part of this great world and the Mother Nature hasn’t created them to be massacred at the hands of sinful humans. Unfortunately, the practice of mass sacrifice, which can be aptly compared to group massacre, is deeply rooted with many indigenous and tribal communities and is often associated with the divine intervention and protection against demonism.

Many people asked me why I have chosen to stay veg. My answer to most of them is often the silence. I don’t feel like answering their question partly because I don’t feel it important to justify my choice and partly because I don’t want to pick some sort of discussion. It’s a simple logic that I love animals and support their cause and therefore have chosen to discard all the meat items. Having said this, I don’t even mean that eating meat items means hating the animals. This is a very tricky point of discourse and I don’t want to involve proving this point. It’s quite obvious that I have to work and deal with many who consume non-veg items and I’ve therefore rather chosen to stay away from all unnecessary arguments on this topic.

I take it as a matter of pride to share that I have also born on this very day when the world embraces the love for animals and promotes vegetarian way of life. This day brings awareness about the ethical, environment, health and humanitarian benefits of Vegetarian lifestyle.

Hindu Scriptures such as the Gita and puranas forbid animal sacrifice. However, thesepreaching have been altered to meet the selfish human ends. Many people do Bakal (Balli pratha), practiced in which the animal blood is shaded in the name of evoking the divine which is supposed to fulfill their wishes and desires. Nevertheless, it’s the sheer irony that Nepal annually hosts few of the biggest sacrificial festivals like Gadhimai festival where hundreds of innocent beings are killed in name of Hinduism. It’s the same country where the blood-thirsty kali, is appeased through the sacrifice of buffaloes, goats, hens and ducks on Maha Astami, the eighth day of Dasai.

We are the fortunate people who take it a pride in claiming that the birth place of Lord Buddha belongs to Nepal. But it’s a sheer irony and shame that we celebrate these big fairs and festivals with mass sacrifice as its part. Killing animals for religion sake just reflects the cruelty which is also echoed by Ram Bahadur Bomjon popularly known as Buddha boy in his repeated appeal not to continue this malpractice.

We have to sympathize with the animals as they too are the living beings like us and should be viewed as our friends. the trend of offering animal flesh and blood has been in practice for ages and is still rooted deeply in our culture that usually gets handed down from generation to generation. I am sincerely concerned for these issues and value the life of animals that consequently makes me proud for my vegetarian lifestyle.

The recent research findings show with promising note that there are numerous benefits of being vegetarian.

According to the American Dietetic Association," Appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."

In the context of Nepal, celebration of the vegetarian day is the thing which is not heard of yet .Let us all give this idea a serious importance this year. Let us all celebrate this day to show our affection for all the innocent animals killed day and night. Let us find pride in staying vegetarian at least on this day that also Coincides with the first day of Dashai .