Oh! Matsuri
Festival
In a muddy festival, as traditional as it is unusual, teams of horses and half-naked men engage in battles in which they throw mud at each other and pray for a good harvest. It’s like our São João. But with mud. Lots of mud.
On Wednesday, more than 30 Japanese, dressed just with thongsfaced the cold and intense rain at a harvest festival with more than two centuries of history, held in a small, muddy field in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo.
It was this year’s edition of the traditional (Warabi Nude Festival), also known as “Doronko Matsuri” (mud festival), which takes place in Yotsukaido, in Chiba Prefecture.
As the name suggests, participants are covered in mud while pray for a good harvest in the year ahead.
Divided into groups, the men they trembled and clenched their teeth against the cold, forming human pyramids, charging forward and throwing each other into the mud, in fights aimed at offer prayers for a bountiful harvest.
“This festival has a long history”, he told Takeshi Seinoa teacher who was participating in the festival for the third time.
The peculiar ritual dates back to the time when the inhabitants of Warabi, a village nestled in agricultural fields and rice paddies, they fought in the rice fields, on horsebackexplains Kenji Tsuruokaone of the festival’s organizers.
The participants They also pray for health and healthy growth of children, he added, with several bringing their newborns to the muddy field before taking part in this edition’s fights.
Although few agricultural lands remain In an area that has changed significantly since the days the festival began 200 years ago, tradition remains central to those who live there.
“It didn’t rain much this yearbut today there was a downpour”, said one of the participants, Kenji Nagata60 years old. “Let’s just say it’s blessed rain.”
There is no shortage of examples around the world outside of festivals and cultural rituals associated with prayers for a good agricultural harvest. This is, in fact, the case of our São Joãocelebrated from June 23rd to 24th, at the time of the summer solstice and an important phase of the traditional agricultural calendar in Portugal.
Many of the practices, rites and elements associated with Saint Johnsuch as fire, water, herbs, basil, dances, music, are heirs of ancient rituals linked to the fertility of the land, the protection of plantations and the desire for good harvests.
And if it’s true that you can’t escape the hammering and the leeks with which the most revelers chase us through the night… at least they don’t throw mud at us.
