Thursday, November 15, 2012

Strange Traditions: Man dressed as bride and woman as groom parade in Yamagata

Strange Traditions: Man dressed as bride and woman as groom parade in Yamagata

The Yamagata Prefecture hosts a traditional event that has quite funny procedures. Imagine a young man dressing up as a bride and a young woman as a groom and then parading though the district! No doubt the strange couple invoked a lot of laughs and applause, but at the end of the day it was all for a good cause, which is why they didn?t mind the attention.

The parade took place on Sunday night and it follows-up on a comical traditional, which wishes for fertility and a rich harvest. ?Mujina no mukasari,? as it is popularly known as, translates as ?a wedding of raccoons,? in the local language. Twenty-four year old company workers Mitsuhide Takanashi donned a bride?s kimono and wig, and twenty-three year old Misato Horiiwore a groom?s kimono. They led a procession, which included some 20 children wearing a fox mask and holding flambeaus.

According to traditional folklore, raccoons and foxes are believed to have special powers that allow them to disguise themselves as humans. Mitsuhide and Misato were picked from among local residents to play the special role for this year?s event. It took the bride almost two hours to get dressed, and no doubt Mitsuhide now understand how difficult it is to be a woman! Different cultures have different traditions, the strangest one that my community has is the one where a mother makes her son dress as a ?lngur? (monkey) and go door-to-door seeking blessings.

[via Kyodo News]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/JapanDailyPress/~3/_1VmqEwaVd0/strange-traditions-man-dressed-as-bride-and-woman-as-groom-parade-in-yamagata-1418408

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