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4 fun, dangerous festivals in China– climbing knife ladder, frog dancing

From risky blade climbing to legalised thievery, China’s cultural diversity makes the country home to numerous strange festivals

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The Post runs the rule over a few of China’s most bizarre annual festivals. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Baidu/Sohu/YouTube
Fran Luin Beijing

Aside from the better-known festivals celebrated universally by 1.4 billion people, such as the Spring Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, China is home to some unique and bizarre annual events that reflect the country’s diversity of culture.

The Post takes a look at four of the most unusual festivals.

Melon-stealing

In some rural areas of southwestern China’s Guizhou province and central China’s Hunan province, there is one day of the year during which theft is completely legal.

Across China, that day is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

A boy, quite legally, steals a melon from a field as part of a yearly fertility ritual. Photo: Sohu
A boy, quite legally, steals a melon from a field as part of a yearly fertility ritual. Photo: Sohu

But villagers in the above places believe that stealing melons from other people’s farmland and gifting them to couples will bring them the child they desire.

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