7 MOST RARE AND INTERESTING RITUALS OF THE WORLD
by admin on Jan.21, 2009, under Rituals, bizarre
(warning some images maybe disturbing, view on your own risk)
Even in today’s modern world where science and technology has made such great advancements, there are places and people who still practice the ancient practices and rituals of their ancestors. These seven rituals are still being practiced in the world. Although if one is unaware of them , they seem really odd and disturbing but in places where they are practiced, it’s not a big deal for them. Some of them have been banned but they are still practiced.
Baby tossing (A Hindu Ritual)
In the western India, this baby tossing ritual is practiced which is said to be 500 years old. Parents from different parts of the country bring their babys to be tossed from a 50 feet high tower. The tower is considered the tower of goodluck. Parents believe that this would bring good health to their children. People say that there have never been any accidents while practicing this ritual.
Bull fighting in Spain
Bullfighting is a Spanish ritual in which one or more bulls are ritually killed by the bullfighter also called the Matador. During the phases of fight, the bullfighter does some formal moves (which are traditional and a part of the game), these moves are intentionally done to distract, to make the bull angry and to injure it. The bullfighter can also be injured during the fight or can even get killed. The fight ends usually with the death of the bull which is due to a sword thrust by the bullfighter.
Thailand’s Elephant Crushing Ritual
In the northern Thailand, baby elephants are caged ,known as the “training crush”, and the baby elephants are tied up and immobilized in a small cage and tortured. They are stabbed with nails in their ears and feet. They are beaten, they are left hungry for long hours. They are not allowed to sleep. The torture is to break the elephant’s spirit and make them submissive to their owners. This ritual is centuries old and is practiced to domesticate the young elephants.
Shia Muslims Mourning Ritual
In the month of Muharram (which is the first month of Islamic Calendar) the Shia Muslims mourn in the remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, who was a Shia imam, and the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him, the founder of Islam). The mourning reaches its climax on 10th of the month which is called the Ashura as on this day the Imam Hussain and his family and supporters were killed by the forces of second Umayad Caliph Yazid. The mourning includes beating of the chest with hands and chains, cutting of the chest and head with blades and other sharp tools.
Thaipusam Festival in Hinduism
Thaipusam is an annual festival of Hindus. In this festival the devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles. They apparently feel no pain and in many cases, no blood is seen. According to them it is their belief in Lord Murugan which prevents the pain and bleeding.
Oral Suction Circumcision
This centuries-old practice, called metzizah bi peh or metzitzah b’peh, involves a mohel (“circumciser”) using his mouth to suction blood from the wound after the foreskin is removed. The ritual is performed by Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox Jews. Most other Jewish mohels wear surgical gloves and use sterilized instruments to perform the circumcision. Many other mohels or circumcisers who perform the oral part of the ritual use a medical tube to suction the blood.
Muti killings
(Pictures have not been shown because they were really very disturbing and sick)
In the Southern Africa murders and mutilation in association with cultural and tradational practices is known as muti killings. As this word originally means medicine. So the murder of people is for their body parts , to be used as ingredients of any medicine or concoctions used in witchcraft. Muti killing is not actually a human sacrifice but it is killing and murdering for body parts. Many of the children fall victim to it.
18 comments for this entry:
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Die 7 beunruhigendsten Rituale der Welt…
Diese 7 Rituale sind wirklich krank, dürften aber bei einigen Menschen positiv besetzt sein – sonst gäbe es sie ja wohl nicht!…
January 23rd, 2009 on 4:19 am
Let’s also add oral circumcision by the jews into this list -
http://www.rickross.com/reference/ultra-orthodox/ultra49.html
They bite at the child’s penis and rip the foreskin off.
January 25th, 2009 on 7:53 pm
This is crazy. But it is their custom. There is nothing we can do.
January 27th, 2009 on 5:16 am
I agree with the comment about circumcision or what it is truly, mutilation. But it is not only limited to the baby fellating Jews but the Muslims and the Americans. It is disturbing and should be stopped.
January 27th, 2009 on 8:27 am
You can add sati, or “bride burning” from India, where if a husband died, his living wife was thrown on his funeral pyre. The British colonial authorities responded famously:
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”
January 27th, 2009 on 1:32 pm
Lisa is a cultural relativist. I call bullsh*t on it. The way the Taliban treated women was/is disgusting and immoral. A coalition of enlightened nations went in there and kicked them out, ostensibly to remove a terrorist support network but also to stop women from being treated like dogs. Would you say “there’s nothing we can do, it’s their culture” to that?
January 28th, 2009 on 1:54 am
I agree with CamStar. There is plenty you can do about it. Would you say “there is nothing we can do about it” in cultures where their tradition is raping five year old girls to keep them in submission? Or throwing people into volcanoes to keep fertility up? Or when Hitler decided to kill as many Jews as possible? Just because something is part of culture does not make it ok. As far as circumcision goes, I was circumcised (not orally) as a baby and I don’t have any bad memories or regrets about it. I think it is kind of nice.
January 28th, 2009 on 4:46 am
Sati was a practice from one region of India that stopped a long time ago. It was a voluntary act commited by widows and obviously does not conform to modern standards. It was a dumb practice and it was good that it ended even if it meant suppressing the culture of the Rajputs.
However, The f*cking British killed a lot more people in India than Sati ever did. Lookup the Bengal famine, Jallianwala Bagh massacre to name just a couple of examples. Apparently murder was in the British custom as was exhibited through out their colonies over a vast period of time.
Looks like white colonists all had a common theme of murdering native populations even in the name of Christianity (example: Goan inquisition by the Portuguese).
So when you bring up outdated practices, make sure you know your own history.
So when you bring up an
January 28th, 2009 on 11:24 am
Here is an list of “widespread western practises” that evoke revulsion:
- Widespread mutilation of body (Body piercing)
- Wanton carving of human flesh and worship of the remains(Hollywood’s cosmetic surgery)
- Public rituals around men’s and woman’s genitals (Strip clubs)
- Blind faith in “godmen” and religious cults (from Oprah to people who “talk in tongues”)
- Ritualistic torture of people in front of a huge and approving audience(reality shows)
- Monarchies(Europe and Australia) and police-states (US) that pontificate on “Democracy”
- Abandoning the elderly to a lonely death
- Ridiculous superstitions (UFOs, “founding fathers (slave traders) knows best”, ghosts and “traditions”)
- Mistreatment and slaughter of animals for venal pursuits(pet shows, recreational hunting, fur industry etc)
- State sponsored “snuff shows” (executions in which selected members of public watch a human being getting killed by a state)
- Widespread support for economic embargo against poor African countries.
January 28th, 2009 on 7:43 pm
Sati was banned more than a century ago. If we go back in history we will see far worse practices from the western countries. No one can claim moral high ground here really.@me
February 6th, 2009 on 6:49 am
@Kleinenstein
WRONG! They cut the foreskin off with a knife. The creepy part is they suck off the excess blood. I don’t know anywhere in the Torah (old testament) that says to suck the excess blood off a circumcision.
Make sure you know your facts before making accusations. Yours was claiming they circumcise with their teeth. That’s actually near impossible to do considering the elastic and fibrous nature of that tissue. It would never break cleanly. No, they do it with a razor sharp blade.
February 23rd, 2009 on 6:59 am
@Shadow
I have to disagree. Circumcision is at most uncomfortable to an infant. Tying their legs down in an unnatural position is what upsets them. I was told I didn’t cry during mine, and I am thankful to have had it done.
March 2nd, 2009 on 4:49 pm
Notice how many of these things are associated with religion? The world will never be free and sane until all religions are discredited and people start thinking for themselves.
March 4th, 2009 on 8:40 am
Male circumcision has been found to prevent the spread of HIV AIDS in African males. What a barbaric, mutilating practice it is, isn’t it.
March 8th, 2009 on 5:38 pm
Oh God, there are people still believing in that circumcision prevent HIV infections. It angers me, not only cause its another ill founded claim spreading like an urban legend, but because people actually believe in it. Spreading shit like that, can get people infected and put a life on your conscience. Its not dangerous to believe that you cant go swimming within half an hour after eating, that legend is just inconvenient. This is dangerous.
March 12th, 2009 on 7:39 pm
ooohh! some really cruel stuff!! hate it!!! :’(
April 7th, 2009 on 12:22 pm
You could also list ‘thookkam’ (hooking/hanging humans) in Kerala and some parts of India.
A video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoRjJzTSHL0
April 14th, 2009 on 10:08 pm
ok, if you guys are SOOO angry about male circumcision (honestly, I would be too if I had a penis as small as yours obviously is, and my parents decided to lop off most of it) then you can really grow it back. It is a medical fact that your body will create new skin cells in the presence of frequent and moderate traction or “tugging” (insert masturbatory joke here…done? Good) By tugging on the foreskin several times a day the body will produce more skin cells to ease the pressure (the same reason the skin of the obese doesn’t split). In a few months, you can have back what was so rudely removed without your expressed written consent. WOW your life must be rough!