A photo shows a butcher dismembering a pig in front of a group of primary school students. [Photo/Chongqing Morning News]

Pig butchering in school: scary or educational?

Slaughtering pigs and eating pork is one of the time-honored traditions in rural areas in China to celebrate the Spring Festival. But many people have never seen it done in person.

In an extraordinary lesson held in a primary school in Southwest China's Chongqing yesterday, a butcher dismembered a pig in front of a group of students to give them a direct experience of this traditional folk custom, reported Chongqing Morning News.

The move divided public opinion as many criticized it as bloody and unsuitable for children, while others hailed it as a good effort to promote traditional customs.

Here are a few comments made by netizens:

@迷離之歲: Most children know nothing about real life, they cannot tell one kind of vegetable from another, let alone where they are from. Our education has a lot to do in this regard.

@寒月夢(mèng)回2015: I watched pigs being slaughtered as a child, which left me having nightmares for several days. But since then, I learned to respect life and death.

In our next story, a vendor pushes tangerines as well as apples on Christmas Eve.