Top 5 bizarre rituals

Giant penises, fertility ritual, Japan

It has to be said, they like a giant willy in Japan, especially in the fertility festival of Hounen Matsuri, where a 2.5m-long wooden phallus is carried across the town to help the residents' sexual mojo - and the crops to grow.

Coming of age with ants, Amazon rainforest

In the UK, boys become men by drinking beer with their mates and chatting up lasses. The Satere Mawé tribe of the Amazon prefer torture by stinging ants to herald that transition.Initiates have to wear gloves containing vicious bullet ants for 30 minutes – 25 times in a row – before they can be called a man. Ouch.

Knives through cheeks at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, Thailand

In September or October every year, Thai people in the southern city of Phuket go vege for eight or nine days and generally shove sharp objects through their cheeks. It's a good way to make a point…

Throwing babies off a 15m-high temple wall, India

Don't worry, the babies that are chucked from a great height at Muslim shrines in Maharashtra fall onto a large sheet. Parents who perform this ritual believe their baby will have courage, intelligence and be blessed with luck.

Leaving bodies for vultures, Tibet

Buddhists in Tibet sometimes perform 'sky burials' for their deceased loved ones, where the body is left out for vultures to eat. Their belief is that the body should be used as a resource and given back to the world.

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