Cows are sacred in India and are often seen walking down the streets. At festival times, they are decorated with bells, painted horns, jewels, and garlands of flowers.  With reverence, this is done as a sign of respect for the provider of life sustaining milk and as a symbol of the divine bounty of the earth.  The cow is very symbolic, it is believed that embodied within the cow resides the pantheon of the 330 million gods.