You must have heard about rituals and tradition playing a major role in religions across the world. Here are three such rituals and traditions that will blow your mind.
THE MONKEY BUFFET – THAILAND
We have seen fairs in our childhood, a crowd of people with different types of clothes and toys, many food rides etc. and our overexcited minds. But what if we tell you that Lopburi city in Thailand takes it to a whole another level when it comes to celebrating the last Sunday of November?
A crowd of people but along with them monkeys too celebrates it. Mouthwatering food is provided not just for humans but monkeys too. In the year 1989, Lopburi-based hotels owner started a fair named Monkey Buffet festival with the help of tourism authorities to celebrate and pay homage to our ancestral cousins. Before any party, we get an invitation; similarly, the people of the area start giving invitations to monkeys one week before the fair, too, with cashew nuts attached to them.
People here wear monkey costumes for the main event and dance to attract monkeys. And because of the vibe of the festival, which is 33 years old, around 3000 monkeys leave the jungle and come to the event ground. Apart from local dishes and delicacy, even drinks are served here to wash down the heavy meals. Ten thousand tourists make their way to this festival each year. This helped boost the media coverage a lot, and this helped the tourism business. They choose only monkeys because these monkeys represent lord Ramas vanarsena, and even they worship lord Hanuman.
BULLET AND GLOVES RITUAL, BRAZIL
Sateré-Mawé is one of Brazil’s oldest and most indigenous tribes located in the mid-Amazon river. Apart from many other things, this community is widely known for their rite of passage ceremony that is held for coming-of-age boys.
In this ritual, young boys who want to be respected as adult men or want to become a warrior have to put their hands in gloves filled with bullet ants. And this is the true definition of no pain, no gain. Any young man who wants to become a warrior in his tribe has to prove that he is strong enough to be able to withhold that position. Their ability to become a warrior is measured by their capacity to endure pain. First, if any young man wants to participate in this ritual, the first step will be to go to the jungle with a medicine expert and their tribe and collect a whole bunch of bullet ants for the ritual. A bullet ant bite feels like you have been stung by a bee 30 times. And to beat all of that, the young boy has to have his hand inserted into a glove for 10 minutes.
TUJIA PEOPLE HAVE TEARFUL WEDDINGS, CHINA
At the TUJIA wedding, the brides start crying one month before the wedding. And if any bride doesn’t follow this ritual, she is called poorly cultivated and mocked in the village. If we see historical records, this tradition started when a war occurred in china, and the Zhao princess was getting married to the prince of the Yan State.
Because her daughter was sent to another state in marriage, her mother couldn’t contain her emotion and fell at her feet when she was departing. And because of this historically known tradition, this ethnic group has been following this tradition for years. The most interesting thing is that the bride can’t simply cry. She has to do it properly. And it’s like a performance. When the sun sets, the bride starts crying. After ten days, even the bride’s mother starts crying. And after ten days more, her grandmother also started crying. And if there are other women in the house, they join the bride and start crying. But this crying is not normal. While crying, some diversified words are used. That ends up sounding like a crying marriage sound. That being said, according to the tradition crying before marriage is done purposefully to start the new life of married women on a happy note.
Things don’t end here!
According to this tradition, you also have to curse your matchmaker as a part of rebelling against the old matrimonial system. The matchmaker even accepts the swearing. Because it is said that if they don’t, the matchmaker falls all prey to bad luck.
So these were some kind of the traditions that are mind-boggling and still being followed worldwide. With modernisation, even though a large part of the world has killed most of their cultures, there are still some people like these who keep them alive.