The “Sumo Crying Children” festival has returned in Japan, after a 4-year hiatus due to the Corona pandemic, in which dozens of children cry, believing that this tradition brings them good health, and during the festival, parents raise their children who wear sumo uniforms to face each other, while people from The festival team and those wearing oni masks help them cry.

Contest details

The winner is the child who starts crying and screaming first, who is announced by a sumo referee dressed in traditional costume and holding a wooden fan that he uses to signal the winner..

The return of the Sumo crying babies festival in Japan

“We can know the health status of the child by listening to the way he cries,” Hisae Watanabe, the mother of an 8-month-old girl, told AFP. “My daughter may feel nervous and not cry much, but I want to hear her healthy cry.”“

Baby Crying Festival

For his part, the head of the Asakusa Tourism Association, which organized the event, said, “Some people think it’s horrible to make children cry, but in Japan we believe that children who cry hard grow up healthy.”“.