Thousand Year Old Tradition Ending
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The roots of the festival go back to a time when superstitious local people wanted to be assured of luck in the year ahead, particularly at a time of plague and other common diseases. Local men would gather at the shrine in the otherwise quiet town early in the morning to start the day’s rituals.
The men would only wear white “fundoshi” loincloths and coloured bandanas as they paraded through the town, throwing buckets of icy water over each other, swigging sake to stay warm and carrying portable shrines on long bamboo poles decorated with ribbons. As the revellers finally reach the shrine in the late afternoon, they call out for the shin-otoko to appear.
The chosen man is kept in solitude for days in the lead-up to the event, spending the time in prayer, according to local legend. On the day of the festival, he is shaved from head to toe, stripped naked and finally sent out into the crowds surrounding the shrine.
The thousands of onlookers surge and sway as they attempt to touch the shin-otoko for good luck by transferring their bad fortune to him. After much heaving and shoving, the shin-otoko is pulled back into the safety of the shrine.
In December, the organisers of the Somin-sai festival in the town of Oshu, in Iwate prefecture, said the 1,000-year-old event would take place for the final time on February 17 because there were not enough local people to take part in the annual festivities.
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@Mik said in Thousand Year Old Tradition Ending:
Meh, we don't do much ritual sacrifice these days either.
Not during Lent at least.
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