When my child was young, she had no problem crying. It was a skill she perfected at an early age and only improved upon as time passed. I have had friends with large families with an ability to block out the crying of many young children at the same time. Trying to avoid their children crying is a major activity in their home. I've not known of any child who needed to be motivated to cry. I have always believed that babies crying was a natural part of having children. In Japan, they have a different view of babies crying. These must be some very strong babies as sumo wrestlers are paid in Japan during a festival to make babies cry. I wonder why a sumo wrestler is necessary. Most babies will cry if they're hungry, thirsty, tired or need to be changed. I would be shocked if the sumo wrestler changed, fed or rocked the crying babies to sleep.
Below are excerpts from
the story with my valuable insights in italics.
Japanese parents believe
the ritual will scare away demons and bring their children good
health
For most new parents,
stopping their child from screaming is a daily ordeal, to be endured
rather than enjoyed.
But in the Nakizumo baby
contest, the aim is the opposite.
Sumo wrestlers are
employed to bring the babies to tears, in order to drive away evil
demons.
I'm sure many parents
believe they had children who seem to cry like they were possessed
with evil demons. This seems to be very evident when some children
reach their teenage years. So, Japanese people pay sumo wrestlers to
make their babies cry and make evil demons go away from their
progeny. I wonder how much a sumo wrestler gets paid to make a baby
cry. Does a sumo wrestler with more experience at making babies cry
cost more than one with less experience? I'm sure it's very
important you are able to pay a sumo wrestler prior to engaging their
services. Is it required for sumo wrestlers who make babies cry to
join a union? I don't know what it would be like to have a sumo
wrestler collect past due money from you, but I would not want to
have such an experience.
It’s based on
the Japanese proverb “Naku ko wa sodatsu”, or “crying
babies grow fastest”, and parents believe the event brings good
health to their children.
The sumo wrestlers pull
faces, make noises and jiggle the babies, in order to get their child
to cry the fastest.
They shout “Naki”,
meaning “cry” in Japanese, in a literal attempt to make the
babies weep.
If crying babies did
grow the fastest, my child would have reached maturity by the age of
three. I am a bit surprised that having a huge man scare your baby
until it cries is considered a way to provide your baby with good
health. Is a screaming baby considered equal to some type of
childhood vaccination? I'm sure it would be worth the experience to
see the sumo wrestlers, jiggle babies and make faces at them. I'm an
adult and if a huge sumo wrestler yelled at me to cry, the tears
would begin to flow. How do you determine the fastest crying baby?
Is there a world record crying baby? Is there a crying baby Hall of
Fame? I wonder about so many things.
The first baby to cry is
declared the winner, but if both start crying at the same time, the
louder baby wins.
Once they begin to sob,
they are held up higher to increase the strength of the blessing.
I wonder if they have
ever had a challenge to the winner and an official was required to
review a video to determine the decibel level of the winning crying
baby and its challenger.
It could be an intense
moment when crying babies and sumo wrestlers need an official
carefully reviews a video to determine the winner.
“Upon further review,
we have determined the challenger did cry first by a few seconds and
was a decibel level above the declared winner.”
The official then runs
from the area chased by a sumo wrestler holding a crying baby.
I'm sure thing can get
intense during these competitions.
If the child doesn’t
cry, laugh or fall asleep, the referee, or gyoji, puts on his devil
mask to speed up the proceedings.
The 400-year-old ritual
takes place all over Japan but is most famously performed by the
student sumos of Tokyo’s Sensoji Buddhist temple.
The Nakizumo contest is
held at the high point of spring, which coincides with Japan’s
Children’s Day holiday.
I'm impressed with the
attitude all children will cry. A rookie sumo wrestler can't get a
baby to cry by yelling at it, it's no problem. He may not win, but
an official will put on a devil mask in an effort to terrify the
child. If I were to watch all of this, I would start crying and
looking for a place to have some sushi. It would be my comfort food.
It's good to know sumo
wrestlers making babies cry is a tradition that has been happening
for hundreds of years. You have to wonder if some Japanese
politician hundreds of years ago was mad at some sumo wrestlers and
told them as punishment they had to make babies cry. If they don't
make them cry, an official will make the baby cry. One way or
another, there will be crying babies. I believe this an idea by a
person who did not have children or really disliked sumo wrestlers.
Below is a link to the
story.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/10791221/Japans-baby-crying-festival-in-pictures.html
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