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helmets for each participant to wear during the crying competition and create commemorative gifts and souvenirs for the parents. Next, the crying baby competition is held outdoors in a handmade sumo ring. Two babies at a time compete in short matches, while held in the arms of professional or student
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The festival is free and open to the public; however, some shrines and temples require that parents submit an application or pay a fee to participate. Some locations are so popular that children are chosen by lottery, and parents will travel across Japan to find a place to participate. While the
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holiday. The specific customs and traditions of each festival vary by location, but the main focus of every festival is a ritualistic prayer for the good health of each baby and a competition between infants held in a sumo wrestling ring.
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and seated facing one another on pillows while a sumo referee encourages the babies to cry. Eligible competitors must be between the ages of 6 months and 18 months at the time of the festival. Around 100 babies compete each year.
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temple hold the babies in their arms. When the babies begin to cry, the student wrestlers raise the babies higher in the air, which is believed to strengthen the blessing endowed on each crying child. At the
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majority of participants are
Japanese, some foreigners have traveled to Japan to partake in the festival. CNN interviewed a Japanese-American couple who flew from
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Sumo wrestlers employ a variety of techniques to encourage crying, including bouncing the baby in their arms, making loud noises and funny or scary
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for over 400 years. The festival is considered to have origins in the folk belief that the loud cry of an innocent baby has the power to ward off
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A Shinto priest opens each festival with rituals to pray for the healthy growth of each baby. The staff at the shrine hand-make four-pronged
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The winning child is raised high in the air by a sumo wrestler at the
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A referee evaluates the strength and volume of each contestant's cry.
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throughout Japan, most commonly on or around May 5 to coincide with
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Gallery of images from Naki Sumo
Festivals across Japan
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The best-known Naki Sumo
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560:"You big crybaby: Japan's Nakizumo festival"
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376:"Naki Sumo: Japan's Crying Baby Contest"
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467:"Watch A Baby Cry Sumo Contest"
435:Berthelsen, Mads (4 May 2012).
184:baby has the power to ward off
535:. 1 March 2015. Archived from
533:"赤ちゃんの成長願う「泣き笑い相撲」 大分 NHKニュース"
337:Alsop, Harry (27 April 2014).
204:or evil spirits. The Japanese
137:Naki Sumo Crying Baby Festival
24:Naki Sumo Crying Baby Festival
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608:Lutz, Jaime (26 April 2014).
558:Kovago, Simone (6 May 2010).
471:www.nationalgeographic.com.au
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635:Official website
271:meaning "live long".
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495:"一心泣き相撲®とは | 一心泣き相撲"
56:Crying Baby Festival
343:The Daily Telegraph
262:"Naki! Naki! Naki!"
74:religious, cultural
665:Childhood in Japan
655:Festivals in Japan
257:facial expressions
235:at the end of the
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79:Significance
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237:Golden Week
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649:Categories
564:CNN Travel
319:References
520:Lutz 2014
351:0307-1235
293:Hiroshima
174:sumo ring
164:in which
108:Frequency
614:ABC News
408:ABC News
380:HuffPost
306:New York
284:Sensō-ji
155:Nakizumō
142:Japanese
48:Nakizumo
37:Sensō-ji
619:29 July
594:18 June
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505:18 June
276:Asakusa
206:proverb
192:History
150:Hepburn
543:8 June
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297:kimono
245:kabuto
202:demons
182:crying
166:babies
111:Annual
280:Tokyo
198:Japan
102:May 5
660:Sumo
621:2020
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571:2020
545:2020
507:2020
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146:泣き相撲
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