Japan’s bizarre annual ‘Naked Festival’ inculcates agricultural interest in youths

New Delhi: In a bizarre event that took place in Japan’s Honshu Island on Saturday, scores of people were seen braving the chilly weather to take part in the annual Naked Festival.

According to CNN, the event dubbed as ‘Hadaka Matsuri’ in Japanese is an annual festival which is celebrated every third Saturday of February at the temple Saidaiji Kannonin.

Thousands of males participated in the event where they were seen sporting a minimal amount of clothing with most of them using a Japanese loincloth called ‘fundoshi’ along with a pair of white socks.

‘Hadaka Matsuri’ is a harvest festival that begins at around 3 p.m. (local time) and is aimed at inculcating agricultural interests in the younger generations.

“We hope they will be able to keep the tradition alive in the future,” CNN quoted, a spokeswoman from the Okayama tourism board, Mieko Itano.

As a part of the rituals of the festival, men spend the initial hours running around temple grounds and purifying themselves with freezing cold water and then head towards the main temple.

The participants then tussle to find two lucky sticks that the priest of the temple throws along with 100 other bundles of twigs.

At the end of the event men often emerge out with bruises and injuries due to the struggle to find the lucky sticks.

According to CNN, apart from the participants, visitors from different parts of the world also attend the event. (ANI)