Did you ever have to think about what rituals people make in different parts of the globe? Religious, occult - they are held for many millennia.
Some of them seem quite harmless, while others cause the blood to stiffen in the veins. People are ready to maim themselves and others - all for the sake of the idea. Surprisingly, many believe that rituals do indeed benefit. Do you want to know how people from different countries are excelling?
1. Vegetarian Festival in Phuket
But let the name of the festival does not lead you astray. Nothing to do with vegetables. During the festival, people abstain from meat for 9 days. Not so scary? Yes, if we do not take into account the fact that in a sign of respect for animals, participants pierce their cheeks with sharp objects.
2. The worship of the Ainu to bears
The indigenous people of Russia and Japan, the Ainu people, regularly perform a strange ritual. Considering the bears as gods, they bring the animals for sacrifice for the sake of blessing of their kind. Ayns kill the bear, while she hibernates in the den, and her cubs are brought up in captivity. Alas, in two years and the cubs there is a sad fate.
3. Throwing out children
In India, parents drop their newborn children from the roof of a tall building. According to the ritual, this will give the baby good health. It has been practiced for 700 years already. How did it all start? Very long ago, when infant mortality was high, parents desperately turned to the priest. The latter advised that children be thrown off the hill to see that in fact, God cares for all living beings. Now this practice is considered illegal, but some parents continue to throw out the kids.
4. Self-immolation
Tibetan monks burn themselves in extreme cases, when they protest against some injustice.
5. Cutting off your fingers
Most people, when they are sad, crying, eating delicacies, turn to specialists for help, after all. But not tribe tribe in Papua New Guinea. When one of the local mourns, he cuts off his fingers. As a rule, the ritual is performed after the death of a loved one. Now it is banned, but of course, there will always be old-timers who continue to honor the traditions.
6. Eskimo funeral ritual
Eskimos all their lives have to fight for food and survival. As soon as a person grows old and becomes "useless", he is put on an ice floe and sent to the open sea to die. Take care of the old "spongers" Eskimos are not used to.
7. Hino Matsuri
This is a Japanese ritual of increasing the birth rate, which is held in the temple of Tagata from March 15. During the festival, crowds of people with phallic shapes in the hands are walking through the streets. It is believed that after participating in this action, it becomes much easier for women to become pregnant.
8. Drinking cow blood
Adopted in South Kenya and Northern Tanzania. The local indigenous Masai tribe believes that this drink helps to get pregnant, strengthens the marriage, saves from a hangover - in general, in every way has a beneficial effect on the life and health of a person. To extract the life-giving moisture, the veins are cut from the cow. Experienced people say that the animal does not die from this.
9. Satere Mawa tribe gloves
Ritual for children. All boys, adults are forced to wear gloves, full of ants, which are very painful bite. And especially for the ritual, not ordinary insects are chosen, but those whose bites are compared to a bullet wound. Presumably, this action should help boys become men.
10. Endocannibalism
Acts of endocannibalism - the devouring of a deceased person by his relatives, were conducted in Papua New Guinea for many years.
11. Carry his wife on burning coals
In China, the husband must carry his pregnant wife to the coals. In this case, a man should be barefoot. If everything goes smoothly, the birth should be successful.
12. The Sun Dance
A complex ritual of Native Americans. Young warriors in the course of his dance until unconscious. Most Indian tribes continue to practice the ritual today.
13. Live with the dead
The people of torajan, Indonesia, do not bury the dead. Relatives live next to corpses for many years. Bodies are regularly washed and "fed". And that they do not decompose, the corpses process "Formalin".
14. Dive into the ground
During the ritual, young people tie a rope to the ankle and jump from the 25-meter tower down. In most cases, children fight against the ground and are seriously injured.
15. Burial in the sky
It is very popular in Tibet. The body of the deceased person is carried to the mountain and dismembered. Vultures flock to the meat, which take away the corpse in the neighborhood.
16. Famadihana
The inhabitants of Madagascar exhume bodies of relatives and dance with them. This is how part of the ritual of "Famadihana", which, according to popular beliefs, brings people closer to God.
17. Self-heeling
Ashura is the day when Sunni Muslims fast. On the same day, many Shiites commit acts of self-flagellation. Someone uses a whip, and someone maims themselves with chains and swords, thus expressing sorrow for Imam Hussein.
18. Cult of the crocodile
In Papua New Guinea, the boys are sent to a hut where they cut off the skin and leave a bunch of scars on the body to make them look like crocodiles. The essence of the ritual is that the children are supposedly reborn after a collision with a crocodile.
19. Cambodian huts of love
They are built by fathers for their daughters who have reached puberty. In these huts, they must have their first sex.
20. The bridal suite
In Borneo, the Tidong tribe has such a custom - the newlyweds after the wedding can not use the bathroom for three days. During this time, the couple should look at each other and see if she is ready to spend all her life together.
21. Jamaican birthday
Someone smears cake on the face of the birthday man, and in Jamaica, it is customary for the owners of the holiday to pour out flour.
22. Tomato
A popular battle of tomatoes is held in the Spanish town of Bunol annually. Thousands of people gather to pelted each other with tomatoes. This tradition has been going on for 72 years.
23. Jumping through children
In Spain, during the "El Kolacho" festival, men dressed in yellow and red dresses run around the streets and jump over the babies that parents lay out on the road on mattresses. This action symbolizes the victory of good over evil.
24. Eat a dog for good luck
In China, people eat dogs to be happy and healthy. In addition, many believe that the meat of these animals raises temperature and improves well-being. True, millions of zoosecretists around the world do not agree with this.
25. Spitting of teeth in Balinese
The rite of transition to adulthood. In the course of his priest cuts some teeth.