Somebody have already mentioned earlier, we are very uncivilized, which sounds true to me. Can a culture which rejoice the pain of helpless innocent animals be considered civilized? Justice and compassion are two major signs of civilized cultures. Lets testify whether we have these two qualities. Many people follow their tradition blindly and most of the traditions these days are unscientific or corrupt. Before advocating for our culture and tradition it is necessary to judge them objectly. Historically, Dashain is not very ancient tradition. Puranas were started to write about 300 years after the Buddha. Kali puran, on which Dashain is based is one of the latests. Most of the Puranas were written to wipe out he corrupted Buddhism which was based on non violence. There were many foreign invasions and attacks in Indian subcontinent and corrupted form of Buddhism, which was widespread form Tibet to Gandhar (Afgansthan) was cause of it. The society was in disperate need of such literature where violence for justice would be permitted. This could be the reason why all the Puranas were incouraging for violence. Of course violence is very negative, it took our society backward. Now we proud of our ancesters like Buddha and other sages, it means they were better then us. Hindus (those who live form Indus river to Himalaya),at time of Buddha, did kill and eat cow. गोघातको वा गोधातंसेवासीवा गावं बधित्वा चतुमहापथ.....े -सतिपठ्ठान सुत्र (cow killer or his assistance killing cow in a sqare....). There are many remarks in Tipithaka where Buddha discorage people to eat and kill cows. Cows used to be killed in religious ceremonies too. Later when Puranas were written, many things were taken form Buddhas teaching, one of them is worshiping the cow. Sorry for mistakes, comments are welcome, I will reply next weekend. Thanks, Vishowntar (Since many years my family have abandoned to celebrate Dashain)