Ten thousand nearly naked Japanese men braved freezing temperatures on Saturday night for a frenzied scramble in the dark for lucky talismans as part of a 500-year-old ritual.
After stripping down to flimsy white loincloths, the revellers crammed into the Saidaiji Kannonin Temple in the southern city of Okayama to mark the Hadaka Matsuri annual festival.
The wild antics started in the evening when the men tore through the temple grounds, diving into icy plunge pools to cleanse themselves before filling their bellies with beer and sake to warm themselves.
Just before 10pm, the scores of attendees squeezed into the inner temple and, on the stroke of the hour, the lights went out as a priest hurled bundles of twigs and two lucky sticks each about eight inches long into the crowd.
A 30-minute mad tussle for the sticks, coveted as symbols of good fortune and prosperity, ensued, until they had all been scooped up.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
