A prickly bed for a Chinese man: the most brutal festival in the country (5 photos + 1 video)

In China, in Guangdong Province, there is an old unique ritual called Fan Qichuan, which literally means "rolling on thorny beds." And guess what? They actually roll on beds of hard thorns. And it looks creepy. And most importantly - why?





Screaming in the Thorn Bush

Why Torment Yourself with Thorns

This tradition has already been called "the most cruel folk custom of the Lunar New Year" (although, if you look, there are worse ones). The ritual is much more popular than Zhanjiang during Nianli, or the Lunar New Year Fair (a local celebration).

First, all the locals prepare thorny tree branches, tie them together to form a bed and fix it on the "tables of the eight immortals." This is a type of traditional Chinese square dining table.



Brrr, it even LOOKS painful

According to legend, the eight immortals in Chinese mythology symbolize the diversity of talents and the power of unity.

Volunteers for the ritual (usually adult healthy men, so as not to die from such torture) strip to the waist and roll on the thorny surface. And the audience applauds them for their pain, and the deeper the thorns go and the more blood, the louder the applause.

At the same time, the ritual is not uniform, every year the tables for torture with thorns can be arranged differently. There are different combinations, each of which has its own meaning, for example, "a prosperous life path." And the participants must consistently roll on all the tables to go through this path. The more they can roll, the more prosperity they will have.

How did they come up with this



As you can see, the thorns are really long and can go deep into the body (especially colorful photos cannot be shown on the resource)

They say that the origins of the Fan Qichuan festival can be traced back to ancient harvest ceremonies. Historically, it also served as a survival ritual demonstrating courage and strength. That is, the same ancient initiation of a boy into a man.

Local folklore says that only those "possessed by a divine spirit" have the right to perform the ritual. As a result, despite the cuts and bruises, the participants are proud of their resilience and tenacity, considering it a testament to their strength and deep connection with the deities.



Different order of tables - different combinations of happiness, typical Chinese!

I think they all fall into ecstasy, because they do not feel anything special while riding. But then you have to treat it for six months...



The Thais have a self-torture festival, and it's even more horrific

Do you think that for China this is some kind of savagery from the jungles of Indonesia or is it within the norm?