Pagans/Heathens: What do you, personally, perceive as the difference between a sacrifice and an offering?

Question

Gypsy: You are highly misinformed of several pagan traditions if you actually believe that.

And since I AM a pagan I would know, cupcake.

Answer 1

im not a pagan but grew up  in a mix between Catholicsim and paganism for the Aymara culture.  A sacrifice is something u owe or have to give to them to appease. a offering is more like a gift that u like to give.  

Answer 2

A sacrifice is giving something that you cannot afford to give. An offering is any token of respect.

Answer 3

Good question.

The word Sacrifice is derived from the middle english verb meaning "to make sacred"  and was commonly the practice of offering food to deities. Metaphorically, it is used to describe selfless good deeds.

An offering can be the the sacrifice of plant animal or human life, monetary or precious items. It can also be of a purely spiritual nature,  as in offering your heart to your god/desses.

A good question indeed, but there you go again, princess, being all judgmental and uprighteous..  

Answer 4

I'll answer according to blot/faining...

Blot, according to our customs, is a sacrifice involving blood.  Faining is an offering up of food, gifts, items but does not involve blood.  

Excellent line of questioning!

Answer 5

An offering is something I give to the gods as a gift often in celebration that takes nothing from me. Much the same as I would offer something to drink, a snack, and a nice place to sit to a guest in my home. Offerings are done because I've invited the gods to share in something and so as honored guests they are offered niceties.

A sacrifice requires something grander of me. A sacrifice implies that someone must give something up in order to fulfill the sacrifice. If I give a sacrifice to the gods then I am parting with something.  

Answer 6

Personally, an offering doesn't require the giver to lose or give up anything, while a sacrifice does.

Answer 7

An offering is anything of value which is given to

your deity. Usually some food or drink, money, or

as I mentioned the other day, yourself. Offerings

are essentially symbolic.

A sacrifice is when an animal is slaughtered to feed

your family or companions. It is the responsibility

of the Priest or Priestess to assist the spirit of the

animal to return to it's creator and find peace, and to

thank their deity for the food.

Having modern animals killed at a slaughterhouse

without benefit of ritual would be considered barbaric

to most ancient Pagans. Fortunately, in practice, the

spirits of animals are very good at returning to their

creator without assistance... although I wouldn't like

to visit a slaughterhouse to find out how many didn't

make it.

In any case, sacrifices were also done for other

reasons than to provide food (ritual killing) by SOME

but not ALL traditions... my tradition is associated

with a love of animals and we never kill any except

to eat. In fact it would be better to be a vegetarian,

if a person could manage to do that.

Jean

Answer 8

I must ponder this in my heart.

EDIT:

Perhaps intent? Or perhaps a sacrifice is more of one's self and more difficult to give.

Answer 9

heathens...ouch! A sacrafice is to kill something, Wiccans and Pagans live with the creed do as you will but in harming none! The offernings given are those of food and gifts, not blood. IF you do your research and gain some knowledge on the subject you would know that. Those who live naturally like pagans and wiccans do not sacrafice anything but give thanks of offerings.

Gypsy

Just to add:

Pagan

The term pagan is from Greek paganus, an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager." The semantic development of post-classical Latin paganus in the sense "non-Christian, heathen" is unclear. The dating of this sense is controversial, but the 4th century seems most plausible. An earlier example has been suggested in Tertullian De Corona Militis xi, "Apud hunc [sc. Christum] tam miles est paganus fidelis quam paganus est miles infidelis," but here the word paganus may be interpreted in the sense "civilian" rather than "heathen". There are three main explanations of the development:

(i) The older sense of classical Latin pāgānus is "of the country, rustic" (also as noun). It has been argued that the transferred use reflects the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire; cf. Orosius Histories 1. Prol. "Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur." From its earliest beginnings, Christianity spread much more quickly in major urban areas (like Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome) than in the countryside (in fact, the early church was almost entirely urban), and soon the word for "country dweller" became synonymous with someone who was "not a Christian," giving rise to the modern meaning of "Pagan." This may, in part, have had to do with the closeness to nature of rural people, who may have been more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centers and were cut off from the cycles of nature and the forms of spirituality associated with them. However, it may have also resulted from early Christian missionaries focusing their efforts within major population centers (e.g., St. Paul), rather than throughout an expansive, yet sparsely populated, countryside (hence, the Latin term suggesting "uneducated country folk") until a bit later on.

BTW : I didn't speak for Heathens, just pagans and wiccans. And WE don't sacrafice!

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Answer 10

I consider an offerring to be something shared, while a sacrifice is something given without any part being taken.

Answer 11

Personally, I view a sacrifice both as a gift to the gods and a loss to me. I view an offering as something shared.

Edit: The vast majority of sacrifices do not employ killing for killing's sake. The most common form of sacrifice in the world is the votive sacrifice, the giving up of some small precious thing in exchange for, hope of or as thanks for a specific need. The term "votive candle" comes from this.

In the vast majority of traditional European beliefs, the sacrifice of animals, for example, was directly related to FEEDING THE POPULACE with their meat. In Greece and Rome, for example, it was typical to burn the hides, fat and bones and feed the best parts of the meat to widows, orphans and wounded soldiers.

If you've ever volunteered for a food pantry, you know some good cuts of meat would be better than Kraft dinner or instant potatoes.

Edit 2: Pagans and Wiccans sacrifice in the classical, not the new age, definition of the term, no matter what a new age newbie claims!

Answer 12

An Offering is just something that is given out of Abundance and thanks, a sacrifice is giving when the giving will negatively impact you.  

Answer 13

answer: sacrifice is something that hurts to give up. An offering is a token of honoring - food, mead, ale, etc.  A sacrifice - pledging to do something that is a sacrifice of time, money or such.  I made a pledge to help with the Red Cross 3 years ago as a sacrifice/offering.  Hurricane Katrina hit, then hurricane Rita and then hurricane Wilma.  I sacrificed and loved it.

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Looks like Gypsy needs to learn more about Heathens and stop lecturing us about what sacrifice is.  You ASSume a lot - I have yet to see a blood sacrifice in a Heathen blot.  Willful ignorance among pagans is stupidity and derisive.

Gyp - you didn't state you were talking only about pagans. You targeted Heathens with assumptions and misconceptions.  Learning more about others before speaking would be a good choice.