PENIS FESTIVAL in Asia

[ChinesePussy]

Let's go to Asia to pray for the penis

http://keepintouchwithem.tripod.com/penis_festival.htm

[ChinesePussy]

Apparently, the festival would bring good fortune
and "fertility" to the businesses and lucky women who got to ride. I've
still got a wooden "charm" with a penis burnt into it from the festival.
Anybody know the name of the festival and what it was _really_ all about?

[ChinesePussy]

Japan's Festival of the Steel Phallus PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY
The World Today Archive - Monday, 2 April , 2001 00:00:00
Reporter: Peter Martin
COMPERE: Over the weekend in Japan in the Kawasaki region, there was an unusual icon celebrated. In fact, all over town both floating in the air and in shrines were phallic symbols.

Japan's birth rate is plummeting and its population is expected to peak and begin falling later on this decade.

Our correspondent Peter Martin joined the throng at Kawasaki's festival of the Steel Phallus.

PETER MARTIN: We're surrounded by wooden penises, very big ones, about a metre long, about a foot thick on which women are being invited to sit and have their photos taken, occasionally licking penis-shaped lollies.

To one side a man is carving penis shapes out of long, thick radishes and there are stalls selling, well, just about everything, sometimes edible, and always shaped like a penis.

A small permanent shrine in front of the temple itself contains what must be the steel phallus of the festival's title. It's a blacksmith's anvil shaped like a penis.

This is a traditional Japanese festival dating back to the Edo period some 200 years ago but about half of the visitors to the town of Kawasaki today are foreigners, curious and keen to have their photos taken with a penis or to buy an edible one.

The first gigantic metre-high penis is now being carried aloft on top of about 20 shoulders of men dressed as women accompanied by children in traditional Japanese costumes and senior citizens in kimonos.

Behind it is a very heavy marble upright penis in a shrine and a wooden penis carved out of a tree with the tree bark still showing. Lining the streets are cherry blossoms.

The festival is held every year at this time at the start of Spring. It's said that its original purpose was to allow Kawasaki's women to pray to the penis for success in their business and protection from syphilis. It has a different meaning now. It's a joyous event where people seem to want to let go of inhibitions. There's a sense of celebration, of fun connected with sex.

The transvestites carrying the first float are welcomed as part of a new tradition. There's a sense that sex matters, that it may have been forgotten in Japan.

Japan's birth rate has fallen to 1.39 babies per fertile woman, way below the replacement rate of about 2.1 babies per fertile woman.

Australia's rate is healthier, at 1.8, and Australia has immigration.

More and more women in Japan are becoming what's known as parasite singles, women who stay at home with their parents and earn money rather than get married and have children. The aim of this festival today seems to be that sex is good, Japan's survival may depend on it and it's worth celebrating.

At the festival of the Steel Phallus, this is Peter Martin, reporting for The World Today.

COMPERE: I wonder if that's Kawasaki's version of Sydney's Mardi Gras.

[dicksbro]

CP, thanks for sharing. Lived in Japan for three years and heard of the fesitival but never got to go. Neat pictures ... thank you for sharing.

[Lilith]

I am planning a penis festival at my house tonight as well;)

[musicman]

how does one get an invite Lil?

[babybunny]

Love the pics!

Had to laugh when I say the Dragon Ball Z ad at the bottom though... :rolleyes:

[Lilith]

Originally posted by musicman
how does one get an invite Lil?

one simply has to come;)

[dicksbro]

One only has to come? Is that how you spell it?