In normal life, no parent will make an effort to keep their babies crying, but at Japan's Naki Sumo event, parents go above and beyond to genuinely make their children cry.
The 400-year-old Naki Sumo festival is celebrated annually throughout Japan and is thought to protect children from evil spirits and bring them good health and fortune.
The sumo wrestlers try to make the babies cry by holding them and making strange looks and noises during the competition. The infant who cries first wins the competition.
Dozens of bawling Japanese babies faced off Saturday in a traditional "crying sumo" ritual believed to bring the infants good health, which returned for the first time in four years after the pandemic.
Pairs of toddlers wearing ceremonial sumo aprons were held up by their parents and faced each other in the sumo ring at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo.
Staff wearing "oni" demon masks tried to make the babies cry, with the first to bawl being declared the winner by a sumo referee in an elaborate traditional uniform holding a wooden fan used to signal victory.
"We can tell a baby's health condition by listening to the way they cry. Today she may get nervous and not cry so much, but I want to hear her healthy crying," Hisae Watanabe, mother of an eight-month-old, told AFP.
The "crying sumo" is held at shrines and temples nationwide, to the delight of parents and onlookers.
Shigemi Fuji, chairman of the Asakusa Tourism Federation, which organised the event, said some people might think it's terrible that they make babies cry.
"But in Japan, we believe babies who cry powerfully also grow up healthily. This kind of event takes place in many places in Japan," he said.
A total of 64 babies participated in the ritual, according to the organiser.
The rules vary from region to region; in some places, parents want their offspring to be the first to cry; in others, the first to weep is the loser.
(With inputs AFP)
