You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Strange customs and traditions around the world
dobiesdraw
Member Posts: 2,793
in The Rail
The festival of El Colacho.
Once a year in mid-June, devils run wild in the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia.
A blend of Catholic and pagan rituals meant to represent the triumph of good over evil, the festival of El Colacho dates back to the 1620s and takes place on the Sunday after the Feast of Corpus Christi. Its origins are unclear, but some historians believe it may have started as a fertility ritual.
During the festival, red and yellow-masked “devils” run through the streets hurling insults at villagers and whipping them with a horsetail attached to a stick. When drums announce the arrival of the black-clad atabalero, pious men who who have come to drive out evil, el salto del Colacho—the flight of the devil—begins.
In a heart-stopping display, babies born during the previous year are laid on mattresses in the street while the costumed men leap over them. A baptism of sorts, it is believed that the devil absorbs the sins of the babies, and affords them protection from disease and misfortune. Spectators lining the streets will also berate Colacho in order to ward off their own bad luck for the upcoming year. Afterwards, the babies are sprinkled with rose petals and promptly reclaimed by their parents.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/spain/el-colacho-baby-jumping-festival-murcia-spain/
Once a year in mid-June, devils run wild in the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia.
A blend of Catholic and pagan rituals meant to represent the triumph of good over evil, the festival of El Colacho dates back to the 1620s and takes place on the Sunday after the Feast of Corpus Christi. Its origins are unclear, but some historians believe it may have started as a fertility ritual.
During the festival, red and yellow-masked “devils” run through the streets hurling insults at villagers and whipping them with a horsetail attached to a stick. When drums announce the arrival of the black-clad atabalero, pious men who who have come to drive out evil, el salto del Colacho—the flight of the devil—begins.
In a heart-stopping display, babies born during the previous year are laid on mattresses in the street while the costumed men leap over them. A baptism of sorts, it is believed that the devil absorbs the sins of the babies, and affords them protection from disease and misfortune. Spectators lining the streets will also berate Colacho in order to ward off their own bad luck for the upcoming year. Afterwards, the babies are sprinkled with rose petals and promptly reclaimed by their parents.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/europe/spain/el-colacho-baby-jumping-festival-murcia-spain/
Comments
The death of a family member in the Dani tribe of Indonesia heralds a vast amount of emotional and, for women, physical pain. Aside from the inevitable emotional grief, women of the Dani tribe physically express that grief by cutting off (by compulsion) a segment of one of their fingers.
Before being amputated, the fingers are tied with a string for thirty minutes to numb them. Once amputated, the new fingertips are burned to create new scar tissue.
This custom, one of the world’s most bizarre cultural practices, is performed as a means to satisfy ancestral ghosts, and is rarely, but still sporadically, practiced in the tribe
While gestures of the hand are often subject to customary variation across cultures, few can claim this phenomenon extends to contortions of the mouth. In Nicaragua, it is common to point with the lips instead of the thumb or index finger like the majority of the world. Wondering just how exactly a person points with their lips? It all starts by puckering up. Once a Nica has their duck face on, they can direct their lips forward or side-to-side to indicate what it is they’d like to point out. The lip point is typically used in conversation to indicate something that is happening nearby.
Here's a YouTube link meanwhile.
p.s Nice to see people do actually read a non Brexit thread
On Easter Monday, men in the Czech Republic go door to door with gaily decorated, braided wooden switches. These men lightly smack women on the buttocks in hopes of imbuing them with fertility.
https://youtu.be/skFctb9gETs
The Yanomami tribe in Venezuela and Brazil follow this ritual. It is followed to ensure peace for the soul of dead person. When a person dies, his body is burned. The ash and bone is mixed into a plaintain soup and his people drink it to keep his spirit forever with them.
On 2 February, the people of Punxsatawney, Pennsylvania gather to observe a groundhog called Phil emerge from his burrow. If Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, you can expect an early spring. Groundhog Day dates back to 1886, and apparently there has only been one Punxsatawney Phil. He owes his great age to a closely guarded punch recipe.
Becoming a man takes on a whole new meaning when you’re part of Brazil’s Sateré-Mawé tribe which lives deep in the Amazon. Boys as young as 12 years old can take part in the ritual which involves gathering bullet ants, using them to make ant-ridden gloves, then wearing said gloves 20 times for 10-minute increments each, all the while performing a special dance. Being stung by a bullet ant is no joke as the bite has been compared to being shot with bullets (hence the name).
Do you know in Japan, giant penises are paraded through the town? Every first Sunday of April, thousands of people visit Kawasaki to witness the Kanamara Matsuri or pe nis festival. During this festival, you’ll get to see lots of **** es in varying colors and sizes, and even eat ****-shaped sweets. It used to be known as the Shinto fertility tradition, and was later changed to a sex-positive ritual. The organizers of this ritual are priests of the Kanayama that worships Shinto religion.
Legend has it that a demon possessing a vagina ate **** es. The demon was defeated when a girl asked a blacksmith to create a **** made of steel, which broke the demon’s teeth. It’s kind of amusing, yet the people in Japan consider it a serious religious practice.
The censorship made posting that hard work , hence some of the spacing
Teeth sharpening or chiseling is a strange beauty ritual practiced by women in Indonesian rural communities. It involves sawing of the teeth, and women who undergo teeth chiseling are considered extremely beautiful. Thankfully though, this isn’t a mandatory requirement for all women
When you turn 25 years old, are unmarried and celebrating it in Denmark we advise you not to wear your best clothes. In Denmark it is a tradition that your friends ambush you on your birthday with a cinnamon shower all day. If that isn’t already bad enough, you should see what happens 5 years later when you turn 30 and you still haven’t been married. The spice is upgraded to pepper!
This custom might not be repulsive, but it is cringe-worthy. In Vanuatu, a small island nation in the South Pacific, men participate in a yearly harvest ritual called land diving. It's like bungee jumping, but the platforms from which the participants jump are hand-made by the villagers, and they use vines, not bungee cords, as tethers. The goal is to make the vine just long enough so that the jumper's shoulders touch the ground. If the vine is just slightly too long, the jumper will probably break his neck.
Weddings in the Indonesian Tidong community have traditions that are truly unique. Perhaps the most adorable of their customs is the one where the groom isn’t allowed to see the bride’s face until he sings her several love songs. The curtain separating the couple is raised only after the musical requirement is met, and then they can see each other on a dais. But the weirdest of them all is this – the bride and the groom aren’t allowed to use the bathroom for three days and nights after the wedding.
Tidong people believe that not practicing the three-day and night ritual would bring terrible luck to the couple – a broken marriage, infidelity, or death of their children at a young age. So the couple is watched over by several people, and allowed only minimal amounts of food and drink. After the three days are up, they are bathed and then permitted to return to normal life.