Whipping women, crucifixion: Four strangest Easter rituals performed across the world

How did you spend your Easter holiday? Well, while Kenyans typically attend church, visit family or flock entertainment joints, in some parts of the world, there are quite strange rituals performed during this period.

From whipping women to watching grass grow, here are some of the strangest Easter rituals from around the world.

Whipping women

The whipping is symbolic and it’s done lightly.

During Easter, men from the Czech Republic ceremonially whip women with willow branches.

The whipping is more symbolic and it’s done lightly. 

It is done to ensure the women’s fertility and vitality. The willow branches are used since the tree is the first to wake in spring.

Watching grass grow

This might not sound as exciting as the first ritual.

In Finland, Easter is celebrated with quite an unorthodox ritual.

Children grow grass in small containers inside the house and literally sit to watch it grow!

After, the shoot breaks through the soil, the children place eggs among the stems.

Try that on a Kenyan kid.

Crucifixion

A Filipino man is crucified.

In perhaps the most bizarre Easter ritual, some devout Catholics in the Philippines have taken to the practice of self-crucifixion on Easter. The gory display of devotion frowned upon by the Roman Catholic Church draws hundreds of tourist.

This Easter, hundreds watched in shock as actors dressed as Roman soldiers hammered four-inch nails through the hands and feet of a Filipino man onto a wooden cross.

58-year-old Ruben Enaje who has been crucified 33 times believes that the act washes away sin, cures illnesses and leads to blessings.

How’s that for devotion?

Tobacco after church

In Papua New Guinea, the strange Easter ritual is performed right outside places of worship!

Trees outside places of worship are decorated with packets of cigarettes.

At the end of the service, the cigarettes are handed out to the congregants who light them up and puff away.