Japan's 1,000-year-old 'Naked Men' festival comes to an end

The "Sominsai" festival, regarded as one of the strangest festivals that dates back 1,000 years in Japan, has come to an end due to an ageing population, saddening people all around the globe, Hindustan Times reported.

Kokuseki Temple's Sominsai festival used to take place from the seventh day of the Lunar New Year through the following morning.

The 1,000-year-old Japanese ceremony has come to an end as hundreds of nude men wrestled over a bundle of wooden talismans, raising a cloud of perspiration in the process for one last time on February 17.

Their passionate chants of "jasso, joyasa" which means "evil, be gone" echoed through a cedar forest in northern Japan's Iwate region, where the secluded Kokuseki Temple is located and where the festival takes place.

It is the latest tradition impacted by the country's ageing population crisis, which has hit rural communities hard.

Organising the event, which draws hundreds of participants and thousands of tourists every year, has become a heavy burden for the ageing local faithful, who find it hard to keep up with the rigours of the ritual.

Other temples across Japan continue to host similar festivals where men wear loincloths and bathe in freezing water or fight over talismans.

Some festivals are adjusting their rules in line with changing democracies and social norms so that they can continue to exist, such as allowing women to participate in rituals that were formerly exclusively for males.

From next year, Kokuseki Temple will replace the festival with prayer ceremonies and other ways to continue its spiritual practices.