This programme looks at the rituals performed by various peoples across the globe.
This opening edition looks at the rituals surrounding births, marriages and deaths. These range from “Naki Sumo”, a 400-year-old Japanese practice of getting sumo wrestlers to make babies cry in the belief it will make the baby stronger, and a Papua New Guinea coming-of-age ceremony where the skin of young men is cut with crocodile scales to represent strength.
Extraordinary Rituals is on BBC Two at 21.00.
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