Hadaka Matsuri Festival

Month : Februrary
Place : Japan
Famous For : Traditional Festival
Attractions : People dressed in minimum clothes, sometimes naked

The Hadaka Matsuri is a much awaited Japanese festival, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing, usually just a Japanese loincloth called fundoshi. Sometimes they are with a short happi coat, and very rarely completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar, or everyday, undergarments, and on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter.

Major Attractions
The festival of Hadaka Matsuri traces its origin in Okayama, where the largest festival celebration takes place. The festival started back 500 years when worshippers competed to receive paper talismans called Go-o thrown by the priest. These paper talismans were tokens of the completion of New Year ascetic training by the priests. As those people receiving these paper talismans had good things happen to them, the number of people requesting them increased year by year. However, as paper was easily torn, the talismans were changed to the wooden ofuda that we know today. It is said that the form of the festival, a struggle to touch the Naoinin or Shin-otoko (man of god), is reminiscent of the struggle in old times between the assemblage of lower-ranking shinto priests called shanin and contributors tried to catch and set up a man for naoinin (shin-otoko), an unlucky poor man, who was unwilling to take the role.

Official Website :http://www.asianoffbeat.com/profiles/Hadaka-Matsuri_6_1