Japanese pray for end to pandemic
Men using traditional loin dresses and women dressed up in white robes clapped and chanted prior to going into an ice water bath during a Shinto ritual at a good Tokyo shrine on Sunday to purify the soul and pray for the finish of the COVID-19 pandemic.Only twelve persons took part in the gross annual event at Teppou-zu Inari Shrine, scaled down this year because of the health crisis, in comparison to over a hundred in early on 2020. Spectators weren't allowed at the function.
After doing warming-up exercises and chanting under a sharp sky with outside temperatures at 5.1 level Celsius (41.18 Fahrenheit), the nine man and three female individuals went into a bath filled with cool water and large ice blocks. "I prayed that the coronavirus concludes immediately," said 65-year-older participant Shinji Ooi, who heads the Shrine's 'Yayoikai' parishioner group, after the ritual. Japan possesses struggled to contain a recent surge in coronavirus infections, with Tokyo reporting 1,494 new circumstances on Sunday.
The government declared a restricted state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighbouring prefectures on Thursday, covering about 30% of the country's population, in a bid to stem the spread."Normally we have more individuals and it makes the water temperature a little bit warmer. But this season, there have been just twelve people, so it (the wintry) was crazy," the 47-year-older said.The shrine added the theme of "warding off epidemics" to the gross annual event, which is held on the next Sunday of every year and is currently in its 66th year.
