TOP 12 BIZZARE TRADITIONS

Living with the dead
Practiced by Torajans in south Sulawesi, Indonesia. burials are quite expensive and are a very important aspect of life for the Torajan, so when a family does not have enough funds to pay for the festivities, the dead relative is wrapped carefully and then placed inside the the family home. It takes months to raise funds for the burial so the family will have to get use to living with the dead. The Torajans believe that the souls of the dead are with them till they are buried. When the family has raised enough money to fund the burial, the dead is now unwrapped and placed in a coffin and buried properly.

Bullet ant: becoming a man ritual.
Practiced by families in the Satere-Mawe tribe in Brazil. Because you can drink 2 bottles of beer without getting drunk and last 30minutes during sex you think you are a man abi? you must be joking. Being a man is not easy anywhere in the world but in Satere-Mawe becoming a man entails one of the most painful maturity process ever recorded. To be considered a man, you will have to place your hands into a bag filled with aggressive bullet ants for more than ten gruesome minutes. the bullet ant has the most painful bite ever recorded by man, its bite is equivalent to been shot by a bullet, hence the name bullet ant. The process begins with you and your fellow boys preparing to become men, walking into the bush to gather this deadly ants, then the medicine man pours a liquid on them to make them inactive and they are placed in a bag. Once the ants wake up and realize they are trapped, they become totally aggressive and bite anything they can see (your hands in this case).  The young men will have to endure constant bites from bullet ants for about 10 minutes or more. you can also say, to be considered a man, you would have to be constantly shot with bullets for 10 minutes.

OSU: out caste system
Practiced in eastern Nigeria, the bizzare tradition involves strict discrimination and total ostracization of anyone unlucky enough to be called an OSU. Though there is no concrete reason to what makes one to be called an OSU which means something that is given or meant for the gods, but once you are tagged an osu, you immediately become an outcaste and your generation is not left out. The osus though are normal human beings live their lives like spirits because the Nwadialas(sons of the soil) are not allowed to have anything to do with the Osus, failure to do this means you automatically become an OSU yourself. A person tagged as an OSU is not allowed to dance, sing, eat, chat, shake hands, join a social club, are not even allowed to attend the same church service and have sexual relationships with the nwadialas. The Nwadialas who are the freeborns live anywhere they wish to, while the Osus normally live close to each other usually around shrines or market places.

Finger cutting
Practiced by families by the Dani tribe of Indonesia. the death of a loved one normally brings emotional pain but in the Dani tribe, it involves emotional and physical pain for the women. The fingers of the women are cut off as a way of displaying grief at funeral ceremonies, this bizzare act which is unfortunately compulsory, is done to appease the spirit of the dead and drive away these spirits. Before been cut off, the finger/fingers are tied to a string and left for about 30 minutes after which it is cut off. After the cutting, the severed part is allowed to dry, before they are burned and the ashes buried in a designated place. It is said that the physical pain during this act symbolizes the suffering and pain due to the loss of a loved one.

Magun

Practiced by families in the south-western part of Nigeria, the magun is black magic known to deal ruthlessly with acts of adultery. The magun is no respecter of person, tribe or motive, for it deals ruthlessly with any man unlucky enough to sleep with a married woman laced with magun. When a man has sexual intercourse with this woman,then he is under the spell. the effect of magun vary from place to place, so what you see is what you get. but the common stories include untimely death or getting stuck with the woman until further notice. The worst part of the magun black magic is that E NO DEY SHOW FOR FACE, so have sex with a married woman from the south-west region of Nigeria at your own risk.

Foot binding

Practiced in China, foot binding involves applying painfully tight bindings to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. Due to the fact that small feet were regarded as beautiful and it connoted a sense of style and class, the feet of young girls were prevented from growing by fire and by force. The very painful process is carried out when the girl is about 4 to 9 years of age, each foot is soaked in a mixture of herbs and animal blood to soften the foot. Furthermore, the toenails are cut of to prevent them from growing in the bind and causing infections. The toes are then bent backwards towards the sole to the extent that it breaks, the broken toes will now be held tightly against the sole with cotton bandage which is soaked inside the same herb and animal mixture. Pulling the foot downwards, the leg and arch is forcefully broken, after which the bandage is wound up and greatly tightened. Subsequently, the feet of the girl is unbound, washed and then the toe nails trimmed again to prevent infection after which the feet is wrapped up again even tighter than before to achieve the desired result. At the end of this gruesome process the feet looks exactly as the one shown above, and that is considered beautiful and classy.

Sati

Hindu funeral custom practiced in India. Sati involves the widow throwing herself into the pyre (wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite) of her husband in order to commit suicide, for it is said that after the death of a husband their is little or nothing left to expect in life for a widow. The widows who will eventually roast to death, cast themselves  the fire voluntarily at least that is what the tradition says. But there could be a certain amount of pressure on widows to perform Sati even though it is voluntary, but existing accounts and most widows who performed Sati did it voluntarily. However there are some cases where a widow who has has decided to perform the act is not allowed to by people that frown against the tradition and all efforts are made to stop her from leaping into her own death.

The Mourning of Muharram

Practiced by the shia Muslims, to commemorate the death and suffering of Hussein Ibn Ali, the grandson of Mohammad who was killed by the second forces of ummayad caliph yazid 1 at Karbala. A number of shia Muslims mostly men, hit the streets on the death anniversary with whips made of iron, and attached to the whips are either knives, blades or any sharp object that can induce bleeding and inflict pain. With these weapons they beat themselves repeatedly, other groups cut their heads open with knives. The presence of blood and pain reminds them of the death and suffering of Hussein, who was a shia imam before death. Though the tradition might seem cruel, it is performed voluntarily by the followers.

Female genital mutilation: female circumcision
Practiced mainly in about 27 African countries including Nigeria, as well as Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan. Female genital mutilation is divided into four types, the most common is clitoridectomy. In clitoridectomy the girls are forcefully pinned down, the clitoris is held with the thumb and index finger, pulled out and with a very sharp blade or knife it is cut off. The worst type of FGM is the type iii( infibulation) popularly practiced in Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Eritrea, it involves the removal and closure of the inner and outer labia in such a way that only a small hole or opening is left for passage of urine, menstral blood and even sex( which is usually extremely painful). Though there is no general reason why FGM is practiced, each country, region and tribe have various reasons to perform this not so pleasant act, but the common reasons for female genital mutilation includes; curbing sexual immoralities amongst women, it is a purification process( whatever that means), and also it is a belief that without circumcision a girl has not fully become a woman. There are no known health benefits of FGM but the negative effects include: shock, bleeding, cyst and formation of scar, complications during child birth, wound infections and viruses(tetanus, gangrene,HIV, hepatitis B and C), persistent urine infections, chronic vaginal and pelvic infections and so many more.

Toss thy baby
Practiced in Sholapur ( a region in Maharashtra, India). Annually, terrified toddlers in this region scream and cry out loud as they are shaken rigorously and tossed from a 40ft balcony. The terrified babies fall 40ft and are caught with a sheet held by men on the ground. The people in Sholapur believe that throwing their babies from a 40ft balcony will provide their babies long, healthy lives and prosperity. After the toss has been done successfully, the over excited crowd pass the infant around before eventually handing it over to the mother. The traumatized children cry bitterly for hours making the ritual less appealing and horrified children rights groups want the ritual banned by the government.

Death eaters
The Aghori tribes are members of a Hindu sect who worship Shiva. They believe everything is good and should not go to waste because they are created by their supreme god Shiva. For this they engage in all practices including; fornication, adultery, drugs and cannibalism. Yes they eat the dead for it is good and should not go to waste. When a member of the tribe dies the body is cremated and the ashes shared amongst the tribesmen, who then rub it on their bodies. But when they come across dead bodies of people not from their tribe, then food don land, they meditate on the body after which they feast on it, for all is good and accepted by the supreme god Shiva.

Self mummification
Practiced by Buddhist monks in Japan, exclusively in northern Japan around Yamagata. The monks go through a suicidal process that's leads to their bodies been mummified, unlike the conventional way in which a person has to die before mummification process can begin, the Buddhist monks in Yamagata begin their own mummification when they are still alive which will lead to a gruesome death. The Sokushibutsu (Buddhist monks) for three years go on a special diet of nuts and seeds, while taking part in rigorous physical activities that eats up their body fat. Then they go another three years of eating only barks and roots, and drinking poisonous tea made from the sap of the urushi tree, a substance normally used to lacquer bowls. This diet cause them to vomit and rapidly lose body fluid, it also kills off maggots that will aid decomposition of the body after death. Finally, they lock themselves in a tomb slightly larger than the body, where they will be provided with an air tube and a bell, no food no water. Each day, they ring the bell to indicate they are still alive, when the bell never rings again, death is confirmed, the tomb is sealed and the air tube removed.