Weird Religious Ritual?

Kapparos is one of the weirder religious rituals I had never heard of until now. I thought blood sacrifice in the Jewish tradition went out with the fall of the Temple, but once more, I was wrong. The tradition among some orthodox Jewish sects involves reciting a prayer while swinging a live chicken (more progressive Jews use money) around your head three times before slaughtering it. The chicken is then eaten or the money is given to the poor. This is done between Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) with the chicken dying for the sins of the swinger. The prayer goes something like this:

This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This chicken will go to its death (or, if using money, "this money will go to charity") while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and peace.

There seems to be an interesting parallel between this ancient Jewish practice and the Christian tradition. In the Jewish tradition, the chicken dies for your sins and is then eaten.

In the Christian tradition Jesus dies for our sins, and then is eaten (through communion).