Giant pink penises paraded the streets of Japan marking the annual 'Festival of the Steel Phallus', where hundreds of people gathered to not only carry the male genitals in their arms, but also lick off them.?
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Yes, to celebrate male fertility, huge manhood-shaped shrines were walked on the streets of Kawasaki. Additionally, penis-shaped lollipops were enjoyed with full gusto.
Reuters
Held every year on the first Sunday of April, the festival is celebrated to uphold male appendage and fertility, and to remember a 17th-century legend of a sharp-toothed demon who fell in love with a beautiful woman.
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The festival was first held in 1977 at the Kanayama Shrine. The legend goes something like this - the demon, spurned by the woman, castrated the men who wanted to sleep with her and took shelter himself in her vagina. In order to break free from his torture, the woman sought help from a blacksmith, who fashioned a steel dildo that was used to break the demon's teeth. The demon died, the woman was freed, and the penis was enshrined.
Reuters
All was well in the world.
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The Festival of the Steel Phallus was thus born and the Kanayama Shrine became a site of penis worship. So much so that it is revered by the LGBT community, and also by sex workers who often visit to pray for protection against STIs.