This document summarizes 10 unusual rituals from around the world. Some of the rituals described include piercing the body with hooks and spears as part of the Thaipusam festival in India, drinking a soup made from the ashes and bones of deceased relatives as part of a burial ritual among the Yanomami tribe of Brazil and Venezuela, and dancing with wrapped corpses every 7 years as part of the Famadihana ritual in Madagascar. The document also mentions rituals involving cutting off fingers during mourning in New Guinea, wearing gloves with bullet ants to prove manhood in the Amazon, throwing babies from a temple as a blessing in India, and prohibiting newlywed couples from using the bathroom for 3 days in Indonesia.

1. Weirdest ever rituals held around the World
Well,sometimes you might find your own life to be bit of a weird place having to do many
different things during the day.But here's a list of the most weirdest ever rituals which
would leave you shocked and stunned. Ever lead a weird life? Think again!
(source:www.commons.m.wikipedia. org)1.Thaipusam,India
The Hindus in Tamil Nadu perform this extremely painful ritual.To declare their devotion
to Lord Murugan,devotees pierce their bodies in various parts.To celebrate Lord
Murugan's victory with a spear over an evil spirit Soorapadman,devotees pierce their
bodies in many different parts including painful piercings through the mouth and the
tongue.However, this has turned out to be more gory and bloody as devotees put hooks
and spears through their faces.

2. (source:www.blog.sevenponds.com)2.Burial Ritual, Yanomami tribe,Brazil and
Venezuela
The burial ritual performed by the Yanomami tribe which stay in Brazil and Venezuela is
too a weird and an extreme one.To ensure peace for the dead souls,the members of this
tribe burn the dead bodies and mix the ash and the bone powder with a plantain soup
and drink it.According to their traditions,they must to do so to ensure that the dead
person would live in them forever.If they do not do so,then,they believe that they would
be haunted the spirit of the dead person.On top of that, they find it really horrifying if the
body if the dead body is left to decay.The soup of a dead body, a good appetizer?

3. (source:www.users.cloud9.net)3.The
Cutting of Fingers in the Dani Tribe, New Guinea
In what can be called as a very weird ritual, the members of the Dani Tribe in New
Guinea chop of their fingers as a symbol of mourning for the dead.When a person
passes away in this tribe,the relative,for example,the spouse,will have to cut one finger
and bury it with the dead.The finger,according to their traditions symbolize life and soul
and to bury it with the dead body ensures that their love after death.In addition,the
mourners smear their face with ash and clay as a symbol of grief.
(source:www.odditycentral.com)4.Bullet Ant Gloves Amazon,Brazil
The Satere-Mawe tribe has the most weirdest of rituals.In order to prove that they have
become a sexually mature man,the young boys need to go through this extremely

4. painful ritual.They go out into the forest with the medicine man to collect Bullet Ants-the
insect with the most powerful sting in the world and whose one sting is equally painful as
a bullet when it strikes the flesh.However,after they've collected a good number of these
ants,the medicine man puts some herbs on them to drug them.Then they are put in
wooden mesh gloves and the young boys are made to put their hands inside it.Now the
pain starts!When these ants wake up from their drug-induced state, they find themselves
to be trapped and become very angry.As a result, they bite their hands.The boys on their
part would have to out on these gloves for about ten minutes while they dance and take
their minds of the pain.What's more saddening is that, this is not it.They would have to
do this 20 more times to prove their manhood.The day he doesn't shed a tear,hr
becomes a man.Tough call,right?
(source:www.celebrationswwd.wordpress.com)4.The Dance with the Dead in the
Famadihana Tribe,Madagascar
This is practiced both in the urban as well as in the rural areas of Madagascar.People
bring the bodies of the dead wrapped in fresh cloth and dance with them around the
tomb to live music. This is a very popular funerary custom and it also known as the
Turning of the Bones.This is held once in every seven years and it is done as per their
belief that the dead unite with God after their death.

5. (source:www.indo.com)5.The Tooth-filling ceremony,Bali
This is a very important Hindu religious festival of the Balinese culture as it is performed
as a symbol of the passage from puberty to adulthood.It is important for both men and
women and must happen before they're married.The down tooth and the eye tooth are
smoothened.According to the Hindu Balinese belief, the smoothening of the teeth helps
them to get rid of the invisible evil forces.Also,they believe that the teeth stand for
lust,greed, jealousy and anger and filling them is actually rendering them physically and
spiritually.

6. (source:www.telegraph.co.uk)6.Baby Throwing,India
Another very bizarre ritual, this is practiced by couples who are blessed with a child after
taking a vow at the Santeswar temple in Karnataka. It is practiced by Hindus as well as
some Muslims.The babies are dropped from the top of a 50 ft high temple and are
caught by people carrying a cloth standing at the bottom.This ritual takes place in the
first week of December and is said to bring luck and prosperity to the newly-born
babies.Every year,around 200 babies are dropped and most of these infants are below
two years of age.

7. (source:www.odditycentral.com)7.No bathroom for Tidong Couples,Indonesia
A ritual for the bride and the groom,the bathroom ban of the Tidong people is another
very weird ritual held in this planet.After their wedding, both the bride and the groom are
not allowed to go to the bathroom for three days and three nights.Yes,they are fed
minimal food for these three days and after the third day,they are allowed to clean
themselves and resume their normal lives. They believe that if they do not perform this
ritual,then there would be some impending danger upon their married life,in the form of
infidelity, or a broken marriage, or the death of a child or anything of that sort.So the
couple is continuously kept an eye on by the people.
(source:www.we-are-who-
we-were.blogspot.in)8.Haus Tambaran(Spirit House),New Guinea

8. In this bloody body ritual,adolescents of the Kaningara tribe are sent to stay in isolation
for a couple of months.After they return, an expert cutter cuts of pieces of skin from their
bodies using sharp pieces of bamboo. After the wound dries up,the skin resembles the
pattern of skin of a crocodile. This ceremony for people who are about to turn into adults
from adolescents. This entire idea is based on the notion that the crocodile is the creator
of mankind and the crocodile marks on the body signify the marks of the crocodile spirit's
teeth as it has engulfed the body of the young individual and expelled out an adult body.
(source:www.beforeitsnews.com)9.Muharram,all over the world
This is a festival which is performed by Muslims all over the world.An important part of
Shia Islam, this generally takes place in the first month of the Islamic calendar.The event
marks the anniversary of the Battle of Karbala when Imam Hussein ibn Ali who was the
grandson of the Prophet Hazrat Muhammad and a Shia Imam, was killed by the forces
of the second Umayyad caliph Yazid I.On the morning of the tenth day of the festival,
also known as the Ashura,the Shia muslims whip themselves with whips to which razors
and small knives are attached. Men from all age groups participate in this ritual and
children are forced to take part in this.This is one of the most bloodiest and commonest
of rituals held throughout the world.

9. (source:www.funzug.com)10.The Manasha Devi Festival,India
Devotees of Manasha Devi practice this ritual quite often.According to legends,a man
named Lakhinder was bitten by a snake and had died.His wife, Behula,prayed to
Manasha Devi and she had brought him back to life.To celebrate this event,devotees of
Manasha Devi bathe themselves in a herb called Eklavi and let venomous cobras bite
them.Yes!you read it right!Venomous cobras are allowed to hang from a person like a
metallic chains and in all that time,they are allowed to bite these people.However,
people generally do not die because of this herb Eklavi,which is said to nullify the effects
of the venom. Still,the pain of the fangs striking the skin again and again is something
else.