10 Bizarre Rituals Across the World That Will Blow Your Mind

Okay, so what if we tell you there is a ritual where men run across streets jumping over infants laid below on a mattress? Spine-chilling right? Or what about a ritual when people are not allowed to go to the bathroom for days? And, that’s not all. There are many such rituals that will give you goosebumps and will make you go like “what?”

Our world is full of fascinating species and various cultures that could just intrigue you to explore more. While most of these are being practiced since the ancient times, there are a few which have developed lately. It turns out that we are going to solve some of these mysteries for you. So brace up yourselves as the tide of rituals, traditions, and their celebrations is flowing in.

Ranging from totally funny to the extremely dangerous ones, some of these will evoke respect for them in you, while some will definitely raise your another WTF moment. So let’s start with them.

1. Ainu Bear Worship

Indigenous to Japan and Russia, the Ainu’s mainly inhabit the Japanese archipelago. The bizarre thing about their tradition is that they consider bear to be God and still sacrifice them in the ritual called “Omante”. But more astonishing than that is another ritual called “Lomante” in which they capture the sacrificed bear’s cub and treat it better than the Ainu children themselves. If the cub lacks teeth and is unable to chew the food offered, a nursing mother will allow him to feed on her breast.  The strange fact comes into the picture when after all of this, the cub is ultimately sacrificed and the Ainus celebrate on the top of the corpse pouring wine over it. The poor cub was being raised to die so pathetically.

2. Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Most of you are familiar with the picture but not the festival. Am I right? Also known as the “Nine Emperor Gods Festival”, it is celebrated on the eve of the 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Traditionally the festival is about meat abstention for 9 days but it is filled with strange celebrations and some really gruesome activities. People puncture their cheeks and insert sharp objects like dagger, knives, and spears. Some other activities include fire walking and body piercing. Beware! This festival is not for the faint-heart ones.

3. Cutting off fingers

This strange tradition is followed by the Dani tribe in Papua New Guinea. Known as “Ikipalin”, the Danis perform this ritual as an act of grieving when a loved one dies by cutting their fingers with sharp weapons designated specifically for this purpose. The ritual is also performed forcibly when the community thinks that a person is very influential and they might become a restless spirit after death. A more strange fact is that the fingers are burned and the ashes are kept in the house.

4. Bathroom Ban

The Tidong tribe in the Borneo island follows a really funny ritual, though for them it is a very strict ancient tradition. According to this tradition, a newlywed couple cannot use the bathroom for 3 days and 3 nights. Can you believe that? Remember we talked about moments in the beginning. The community believes that this will bring good luck to them and will result in a long, happy and fertile marriage. The couple is offered limited to eat and drink but this tradition can result in serious illnesses like constipation, headache, and pimples.

5. Drinking Cow Blood

The popular Maasai tribe of Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania are known for a lot of things. A popular one among them is their ritual of drinking a cow’s blood on special occasions like birth and marriage and also to help them with hangovers. The tribals use a bamboo shoot to cut the veins of the bovine and then suck the blood. Strangely the cow doesn’t die after this. This may be very strange to you but the Massais consider this to be a very ordinary active. After all, cow’s milk and blood are what they feed on. The cow’s blood is high in protein and is beneficial for the immune system.

Trivia Time: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat supports this ritual and we are not kidding.

6. Sun Dance of Native Americans

Drums making a piece of ambiguous deep music as if calling the spirits, a raging fire coming to life, ceremonial pipes screaming loud enough for the neighbouring village to hear, these are some of the characteristics of a typical Sun Dance celebration by the Native Americans of Plain Culture in USA and Canada. The celebration includes fasting and praying while some people give personal sacrifices for the benefit of the family or the community. People pierce their skin and dance while the family members pray in their support.

7. Cambodian Love Huts

This unique tradition followed by the Kreug tribe in the Ratanakiri region of Cambodia is something which fathers in other countries won’t even dare to think of. After a girl attains puberty, her father builds a bamboo hut for her far away from the home. This is done to make it feasible for the girl to have sex with the boys of her choice. The community believes that this leads to sexual empowerment and builds trust. The tribe has been living in harmony for years and there has been no report of sexual violence.

8. Raping men and stealing their sperm

An utterly bizarre practice, this ritual is performed by some local tribes in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Known as ‘JuJu’ by the locals, this is a crime in today’s date though still there are some cases. Women rape men, steal their sperm and run away. They believe that this will bring good fortune to them and also cures of certain diseases.

9. Jumping over babies

The El Colacho festival in Spain is witness to another bizarre ritual. Men dressed in clothes painted red and yellow run through the streets and insult people and mock them. Kids are laid down on mattresses and these men jump over them. This is believed to symbolize the victory of good over evil, though earlier it was just a fertility ceremony.

10. Throwing Infants

This is a tradition followed in both Hinduism and Islam. Painful to its core, it includes throwing babies from the top of the temples or mosques with a height of up to 50 feet who is caught in a piece of cloth below. It is believed that this practice brings good luck to the child and improves their health.

The thread joining all of these rituals is ‘belief’. As long as people believe that such rituals bring good luck to them accompanied with money and well-being, they will continue to practice them.