Hey everyone! I'm Gotham Chopra
and this is Holy Facts, the show where we
take you on a tour of the weirder side of
religion and spirituality, from worshipping
the king of rock 'n roll, to praying
to a giant phallus. On this episode, we're
separating the men from the boys. Or rather,
finding out WHAT separates the men from the
boys around the world.
One of the most mainstream rites of passage
is the Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, where 13-year-old
Jewish boys and 12-year-old Jewish girls pass
from childhood into adulthood. Common bar
mitvah rituals include reading from the Torah,
delivering a speech, and dancing with reckless
abandon at a reception afterwards. It's
truly a ritual that helps youngsters around
the world transition from shy children to
kings and queens of the dance floor.
However, young men and women in other
cultures don't get off so easy. In the
highlands of Papua New Guinea young men participate
in an ancient and sacred ritual meant to expel
the feminine contamination left on and in
them by their mothers during birth and their
childhood. It's sort of like a spiritual
shower, but these folks figured out some very
creative ways to make it the most painful
shower imaginable. Initiates first have long
canes shoved down their throats to induce
vomiting, then have sharp reeds jammed up
their nostrils. To complete the ritual, the
young men are repeatedly jabbed in the tongue
with a sharp arrow. You know when you accidentally
bite your tongue and cry like a baby? Well,
imagine that pain times 20.
And deep in the Amazon, a native
tribe has devised an even more excruciating
test of manhood, in case, you know, that last
example wasn\'92t excruciating enough for
you. Young boys as young as 12 put their hands
into a pair of gloves filled with venomous
bullet ants. The ant's sting is believed
to be one of the most painful in the world,
causing a burning and throbbing pain that
can last for up to 24 hours. The boys must
keep the gloves on for 10 minutes, then must
repeat the ritual 19 more times over a period
of months or years to be full-fledged warriors
in the tribe. If it's true that what doesn't
kill us makes us stronger, then these young
men are the Incredible Hulks of the Amazon.
Despite the pain, the stings cause
no permanent physical damage. That's not
the case for the Bessoribe tribe's scarification
rituals, which are the ancient and sacred
version of an American kid getting drunk on
his birthday and getting
a Tweety bird tattoo. This rite of passage
occurs first when the youngest members of
the tribe have their faces cut, leaving behind
scars meant to symbolize the onset of childhood.
Later, young adults have their abdomens cut
in a similar fashion to symbolize their passage
into adulthood.
Compared to these painful rituals,
the young people of Norway have it pretty
good. The traditional Norwegian rite of passage
is called Russefeiring, or Russ for short,
and happens every year from May 1-17. It's
a nationwide celebration for those finishing
their final semester of high school. Participants
spend two weeks drinking, wearing the national
colors of red and white, and riding around
in pimped out Russ cars.
So what do all these rights of passage accomplish?
It's hard to argue that enduring torturous
pain doesn't fundamentally change a person,
or help him mature and leave childish things
behind. For others, the ritual is just a symbolic
shift, a more extreme version of blowing out
the candles on your cake to mark your passage
from one age to another.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments
section below or by uploading a response video.
