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EveryCow

Friday

Lakshmi's day, when many Hindu homes honour the cow, and the day of London's old Smithfield cattle and horse market.

Friday is Shukravar, the day of the goddess Lakshmi for many Hindus, and since the cow is widely seen as a form of Lakshmi, it is a common day for a small go puja at home or at a temple gaushala. In medieval London, Friday was market day at Smithfield, the open field outside the city walls where horses, cattle and pigs were bought and sold for more than six centuries.

Friday and the cow

In much of Hindu tradition the cow is seen as a dwelling of the gods and a form of Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, whose day is Friday. Many women in south and west India keep a Friday observance for Lakshmi, and in some homes and temples this includes a go puja: the cow and her calf are washed, marked with turmeric and kumkum, garlanded and fed fruit, grass or a sweet. Temples that keep cows often welcome visitors to feed them. The custom varies widely and is kept as a matter of devotion.

Smithfield's Friday market

Smithfield, the smooth field outside London's north-west gate, was described in 1174 as a place where every Friday fine horses were traded, alongside pigs, cows and oxen of great size. The livestock market grew with the city: by the middle of the nineteenth century hundreds of thousands of cattle and more than a million sheep passed through it each year, driven through narrow streets to the heart of London. Complaints about crowding and the treatment of the animals led to its move in 1855 to the Metropolitan Cattle Market in Islington. Smithfield became a meat market.

Traditions

  • Shukravar: Friday, the day of Lakshmi.
  • Go puja: Worship of the cow and her calf at home or at a gaushala.
  • Smithfield market: London's Friday horse and cattle market from the twelfth century.

The breeds

GirThe dairy cow of many Gujarati and Rajasthani gaushalas.VechurThe dwarf cow of Kerala, kept by some temples and homes.English LonghornThe English breed that filled the Smithfield pens before the Shorthorn.ShorthornThe improved breed that came to dominate the London trade.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Customs differ by community and family, and are described here as tradition, not instruction. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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