Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals to a higher purpose or to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering (Latin oblatio) can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts. For offerings of liquids (beverages) by pouring, the term libation is used.
Read more about Sacrifice: Terminology, Animal Sacrifice, Human Sacrifice, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism
Famous quotes containing the word sacrifice:
“The tendency of organization is to kill out the spirit which gave it birth. Organizations do not protect the sacredness of the individual; their tendency is to sink the individual in the mass, to sacrifice his rights, and to immolate him on the altar of some fancied good.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“The mystical nature of American consumption accounts for its joylessness. We spend a great deal of time in stores, but if we don’t seem to take much pleasure in our buying, it’s because we’re engaged in the acts of sacrifice and self-definition. Abashed in the presence of expensive merchandise, we recognize ourselves ... as supplicants admitted to a shrine.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“There’s only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)