Damn
it, tipsters, you're supposed to keep an eye out for all the bizarre
news coming out of Japan. It's no easy task, we'll admit, since the
rate of crazy news to "Beavers Build Dam in Creek"-type boring news is
probably 50,000-to-1. But those of you pervs who scour the pages of
various websites looking for words like "peen" and "wangs" to amuse
yourselves should have caught this one...
Culled from various reports:
National Penis Day. Also called Hounen Matsuri.
When
I asked a Japanese friend of mine why we don't deserve one here in the
United States, he told me, in America, they call them Politicians instead of a Penis. It figures.
Every
year a new wooden phallus is carved from a cypress tree that has been
purified. The newly carved phallus will then be the main focus of the
procession that at its end will be placed into a shrine.
Thought to be benefical by by many Japanese and obscene by many Westerners, Hounen Matsuri is held on March 15th every year in the small town of Komaki, which is just outside of Nagoya.
This
Hounen festival and ceremony, which has been going on for around 1500
years, celebrate the blessings of a bountiful harvest and all manner of
prosperity and fertility and the all are welcome.
Here's a link to some of the more bizarre photos... or check out our favorites below:
On top of that, we also missed the more-recent National Penis Day in New Zealand,
which is much less "National" and more like "radio station gimmick." It
turns out a DJ tried to raise awareness/money for charity by having
naked people strip in public and form phallic symbols.
Related:
