Mysterious Customs of the Past and the Present

I think that when mostly the modern people hear such words as “rite” or “ceremony”, what came first to their minds were the pictures of the ancient barbarian tribes. But is it really so?

Obviously, some of the traditional rites existed only in the past. Some of them have already vanished, some – were forbidden by new laws. However, some of them exist up to nowadays.  For example, foot binding custom, being practiced in China approximately for 1000 years, was strictly forbidden only when the Communists took power in 1949. That custom was practiced only on Chinese girls and young women. At the age of 4 or 5, girls usually broke their toes, and then held tightly against the sole of the foot. The feet-binding provoked the breaking of the foot arch, which ultimately left a crevice for approximately two inches deep. It was considered most desirable. After, it took approximately two years for this process to achieve the desired effect; preferably a foot that measured three or three and a half inches from toe to heel. The most common problem with the bound feet was infections. Despite the amount of the care, which meant the regular trimming the toenails, they often became in-grown all the way and started getting infected, by causing injuries to the toes. Sometimes, for this reason the girls' toenails were peeled right back and removed altogether. The tightness of the binding meant that the circulation in the feet was bad, and the blood was almost cut off from the toes. In such way,  any injuries to the toes were unlikely to heal and were likely to gradually worsen, getting toes infected and rotting flesh. If the infection in the feet and toes reached the bones, it could cause them to soften, which could result in toes dropping off—though this was seen as a positive, as the feet could then be bound even more tightly, and get the so-desired by men lotus shape.

And although the foot binding was invented by men and was made to please men,  they never preferred to see the woman's bound feet naked, so they were always concealed within tiny "lotus shoes" and wrappings. Feng Xun is recorded as stating, "If you remove the shoes and bindings, the aesthetic feeling will be destroyed forever" – it shows very well that men understood the symbolic erotic fantasy of bound feet did not correspond to its unpleasant physical reality, which was, therefore, to be kept hidden. For men, the primary erotic effect was a function of the lotus gait, the tiny steps and swaying walk of a woman, whose feet were bound. Women with such deformed feet avoided bringing the weight on the front of the foot and tended to walk predominantly on their heels. As a result, women, who underwent the foot binding, walked in a careful, cautious and unsteady manner.

Another attribute of a woman with feet bound was the limitations of her mobility and, therefore, her inability to take part in the politics, social life, and the world at large. The Bound feet rendered women dependent on their families, particularly their men, and, therefore, became an alluring symbol of chastity and male ownership, since a woman was largely restricted to her home and could not venture far without an escort or the help of the watchful servants.

This tradition was forbidden only by the Communists.

But not only China is famous for its uneasy customs. For example, the bungee jumping, which is considered nowadays to be a popular extreme fashions’ feature, traditionally was a rite of some tribes on the Pacific islands. Up to nowadays they use it as a test for the young men courage and passage into the manhood as well as a good harvest supplication.  At first, they build a tall wooden platform and soften the soil it. Then, in a proper day they go to the jungle and gather lianas, which should be of appropriate condition – I mean elastic, but durable. One man from each family has to make an attempt. While jumping down from the platform, they should touch the ground with their heads, otherwise, the attempt is considered to be failed.

In Southern America customs of passing into the manhood are even more dangerous, because they involve big tropical Paraponerinae ants, that are sadly famous for their paralyzing venom. To pass into the manhood, boys at first should carefully gather these ants, then – put them to sleep by means of the special potion, then – while the ants are asleep – put them to the grass gloves so that their stings point inwards. The next day, when the ants wake up and get extremely angry, before the whole tribe eyes the tested boy should put on these gloves and stand still for ten minutes, while hundreds of angry ants would be fiercely biting and stinging his hands. The pain they suffer is really terrible, because the sting of the Paraponerinae ant is 10 times more painful than sting of a big wasp, causing excruciating pain that lasts from 3 to 5 hours or sometimes even several days. Sickness, shiver, sweating, paralysis are usual consequences of such stinging. And 30 stings can lead to death any animal of 10 kg weight. The most terrible thing here is that they should go through this torture for several times, till they get the right to go hunting and settle down to the married life.

When we hear about such strange, even cruel traditions remaining in Africa, Oceania or South America, it doesn’t seem so strange, but the facts of such traditions remaining in the developed countries can make us really puzzled.

One more example: another strange custom appeared in China hundreds years ago. And it is recovering the popularity now. I am talking about “yin hun” or “dead man marriage” – a custom that was very popular in China and Taiwan. It originates from the ancient Chinese nature-philosophy. It is believed that everything in the world is divided into 2 parts, everything has the dark and light sides, and everything has the male and female side. And taken together only, they create the harmony. As we know, Chinese people pay much attention to rituals of the reverence to the dead, which naturally include the funeral rites, so it is not surprising, that they have come up with such an idea. So, if a family member dies in China, especially if he or she was young and unmarried, it’s believed, that he or she would feel sad, lying all alone in the grave, and he or she would never achieve the harmony. That’s why, when someone dies, his relatives in a matter of urgency – start looking for a corpse of the opposite gender. And if they succeed, they hold a ceremony of the “dead man marriage”, which is almost the same with traditional Chinese marriage ceremony, only with the difference, that in the end the newlyweds don’t go to the nuptial bed, but to grave… Although, as a result of the gender disbalance in Chinese society, not only the alive face trouble finding their decent match, but the dead do as well. That is why, nowadays in China there are many sad examples of grave marauding, when people steal corpses or skeletons of women in the hope that they can make some profit selling them. Moreover, such situations took place when women were intentionally killed to make up the lack of female corpses. But because of desperate shortage of women in China, women bodies are being bought from neighboring countries…

You may come up with a question, why do such kinds of things still exist in our civilized society? Why in the 21^st century people suddenly returned to buying dead bodies for weddings? Maybe, the reason is that when a person has no financial problems, he is satisfied with his life, and his spiritual investigations stop developing. While in the difficult times of a crisis, for the umpteenth time asking “Why?!” and getting no rational answer, the human turns to occultism in a hope that some day he might achieve what he is eager about . And what do we all want? Probably we all just want to be happy…