The Crying Baby Festival of Japan: Why are infants made to cry?

There are several wonderful events and cultural festivals around the world that people from around the world participate in and enjoy. However, some of these are quite strange and they may leave you puzzled. The Boryeong Mud Festival of South Korea, Kanamara Matsuri festival of Japan and Eukonkanto of Finland are some of the unique festivals with bizarre traditions and unique cultural. 

One such unique festival is the ‘Crying Baby Festival’ called Naki Sumo, wherein sumo wrestlers attempt to make babies cry and ensure they continue crying loudly. The Naki Sumo festival is conducted annually at Shinto (an indigenous religious belief of Japan) shrines across Japan. It is conducted on the 5th of May every year to coincide with Children’s Day at the conclusion of the Golden Week holiday (four consecutive holidays in Japan during last week of April to first week of May). It is said that a crying baby keeps evil spirits at bay. Let’s explore this seemingly cruel but funny and a little goofy festival. 

When and why did the tradition begin? 
Japan has celebrated Naki Sumo for over 400 years. The celebration, it is believed, has its roots in a Japanese folklore. According to popular myth, an innocent baby’s loud scream can fend off demons or other evil spirits. People also believe that if the evil spirits are not scared away by crying babies, these spirits might harm the babies. You’d be surprised that this age-old practice is still in existence where parents make their kids sob in public! Another source of inspiration for the celebration is the Japanese saying ‘Naku ko wa sodatsu’, which means ‘crying babies grow fast’. 

Baby crying competition in a Sumo ring  
The festival pivots around a ceremonial prayer for each baby’s health. This is followed by an outdoor crying contest between infants in a handmade sumo wrestling ring where they are held by expert or novice sumo wrestlers. To be eligible for the competition, the kid must be between 6 and 18 months.  

Each celebration is initiated by a Shinto priest who performs customs in which he prays for each baby’s health and well-being. The kids are dressed up and then brought up in pairs to compete throughout the day. The baby that starts crying first wins. The winner is announced by the referee, and good health is conferred upon the first crying infant. When two babies cry at the same time, the infant with the louder or longer cry usually triumphs! Strange, right? 

Other rituals 
Every year over 100 babies participate in this festival at Tokyo. Each competitor in the crying competition receives a handmade four-pronged kabuto helmet, and the shrine staff also crafts presents and souvenirs for the parents. An amulet and a small gift are included in the parents’ ¥15,000 entry fee for their child to compete in the Senoji (an ancient Buddhist temple) event.  

Now you’d wonder what if the kids do not cry at all? Well, there’s a solution for this too. In such cases, sumo wrestlers use several methods to provoke crying, such as bouncing the infant in their arms, making loud noises, making amusing or frightened faces and screaming ‘Naki! Naki! Naki!’ which means ‘cry! cry! cry!’. In certain variations of the festival, referees or judges dressed in traditional Japanese masks approach the toddler and try to frighten them after neither baby has screamed for a certain time period. Some families and spectators chant the phrase banzai raku, which means ‘Live Long’, at the conclusion of each game.