The New Zeland Herald is reporting that an ancient Japanese ‘Naked Men’s Festival’ where men loin-clothes vie for sacred sticks turned tragic when a participant later died.

Video of the event is here. The accident in question is not visible on the video. It took a little bit to load for me so you may wait a minute or two before the video plays.

The eccentric ‘Hadaka Matsuri’ festival, as it is called in Japanese, at Okayama’s Saidaiji Temple has traditionally been a race of joy for its over 9,000 competitors who vie for the favours of two Japanese gods.

But the midwinter contest, pitting cold and occasionally drunk men in a battle for sacred sticks turned tragic when one participant was injured and later died.