Nepal streets ran red with blood Friday, the beginning of a two-day festival aimed at enticing a Hindu goddess to bestow good luck on residents via massive and widespread animal slaughter.

An estimated 5,000 buffaloes were sacrificed in the fields outside the Gadhimai temple in the jungles of Bara, located about 100 miles south of Katmandu, The Associated Press reported. Hundreds more animals are expected to be slaughtered in the coming day.

A priest kicked off the festival — believed to be the world’s largest mass sacrifice of animals — by dropping five drops of his own blood onto the ground, while killing a chicken, a pigeon, a goat, a rat and a pig, AP reported.

The ancient festival is held every five years; in 2009, more than 200,000 animals were killed, AP reported.

Most festival-goers hail from India, and hope attendance will bring them good fortune from a Hindu wish-granting goddess.

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