Bizarre facts-Human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the act of killing a human being for the purposes of making an offering to a deity or other, normally supernatural, power. It was practiced in many ancient cultures.

The practice has varied between different cultures, with some like the Mayans and Aztecs being notorious for their ritual killings, while others have looked down on the practice as primitive. Victims were ritually killed in a manner that was supposed to please or appease gods or spirits. Victims ranged from prisoners to infants to Vestal Virgins, who suffered such fates as burning, beheading and being buried alive.

Over time human sacrifice has become less common around the world, and sacrifices are now very rare. Most religions condemn the practice and present-day laws generally treat it as a criminal matter.

Nonetheless it is still occasionally seen today, especially in the least developed areas of the world where traditional beliefs persist.

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Strange facts-America's most Haunted hotels

Myrtles Plantation

This plantation has been considered by most Americans as one of America’s most haunted Hotels. The plantation is said to be built over and ancient Indian burial a la poltergeist, and if you still need more reasons to satisfy you that it is a haunted hotel, well 10 murders have been committed in the rooms of this hotel, now where the guests stay every day.


Queen Mary Hotel

There are several unexplained events that took place in this hotel. This hotel is actually a cruise ship on the long beach in California. Due to the supernatural experience on this cruise ship, it is also considered in the list of the most haunted hotels in the United States of America. Those who love to have some haunted experiences should definitely reserve a room in this hotel.


Hotel De Coronado

More than 37 paranormal activities have been observed in one room of this hotel on the first day, by the investigators. The hotel is said to be haunted by the restless spirit of Kate Morgan, a young girl who died near the hotel more than 100 years ago.


Crescent Hotel

The building of this hotel is really old, and numerous odd activities and abnormal experiences have been reported by the guests in several rooms, lobby ad dining hall. The hotel is in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Many investigators have visited this haunted hotel and you should definitely go for this one as well.



Stanley Hotel

Another hotel in America that has shown certain ghostly activities in many years. This was the hotel which inspired Steven Kings to write his novel “The Shining”. Steven Kings stayed in room no. 217 but room no.418 has shown the most abnormal activities in the past years.

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Bizarre traditions-Geisha

The full traditions of the Geisha have now been replaced with a modern system. Once Geisha were plentiful in number.

In 1900s, there were over 25,000 geisha. In the early 1930s, there were 80,000 geisha. Most geisha were in Kyoto, the old capital city of Japan. Nowadays, there are less than 10,000 geisha left.

In Tokyo, there are only 100 geisha left. However, true geisha are much more rare. Modern geisha are not bought from poor families and brought into the geisha house as children.



Becoming a geisha is now entirely voluntary, and women who are not the children of geisha can now become geisha. However the training remains as rigorous as before.

Young girls have to be very committed to learn the art of traditional Japanese dancing, singing, music, and much more.

Traditional Geisha did not offer the services of prostitution, though some modern ones are rumored to.

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Bizarre facts-Ancient tradition, Seppuku

Seppuku (Hara-Kiri) was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner.

Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one’s honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai women could only commit the act with permission.

A Samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, fed his favorite meal, and when he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem.

With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (clothing), take up his tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut.

The kaishakunin would then perform daki-kubi, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body)

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Bizarre facts-Dueling

As practiced from the 15th to 20th centuries in Western societies, a duel was a consensual fight between two people, with matched deadly weapons, in accordance with rules explicitly or implicitly agreed upon, over a point of honor, usually accompanied by a trusted representative (who might themselves fight), and in contravention of the law.

The duel usually developed out of the desire of one party (the challenger) to redress a perceived insult to his honor.


The goal of the duel was not so much to kill the opponent as to gain “satisfaction,” i.e., to restore one’s honor by demonstrating a willingness to risk one’s life for it.

Duels could be fought with some sort of sword or, from the 18th Century on, with pistols.

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Amazing facts-Swimming in minus 36 degrees

If you’ve ever run through the snow and jumped into a hot tub you might be able to relate to what the people in these photos feel like… well, at least running in the snow wearing next to nothing. These people, however, aren’t jumping into warm hot tubs after their frosty frolic – they’re jumping into Siberia’s Yenisei River. Apparently these swim club members have made a tradition of it. Running around in Speedos and bikinis in -36 degrees?

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Bizarre facts-The ancient tradition of Sati

Sati was a Hindu funeral custom, now very rare and a serious criminal act in India, in which the dead man’s widow would throw herself on her husband’s funeral pyre in order to commit suicide.

The act of sati was supposed to take place voluntarily, and from the existing accounts, most of them were indeed voluntary. The act may have been expected of widows in some communities.

The extent to which any social pressures or expectations should be considered as compulsion has been the matter of much debate in modern times.


It is frequently stated that a widow could expect little of life after her husband’s death, especially if she was childless.

However, there were also instances where the wish of the widow to commit sati was not welcomed by others, and where efforts were made to prevent the death.

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Strange facts-Visiting a Bank in a Koteka

In Papua many people still wear Kotekas even today. Koteka is traditional penis sheaths for men from the Highlands area of Papua province. But for people outside of Papua, it is a unique sight to see a man dressed in koteka entering a bank (Photograph of Mandiri bank below).

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Bizarre facts-13 year old girl who looks like 30

Zara Hartshorn from the UK is 13 years old. But she looks much older than her age.
She suffers from a genetic disease called lipodystrophy that makes her look like an adult.

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Bizarre facts-Ancient Chinese tradition

The photograph below is of a male Eunich.

A eunuch is a castrated man; the term usually refers to those castrated in order to perform a specific social function, as was common in many societies of the past.

In ancient China castration was both a traditional punishment (until the Sui Dynasty) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty there were 70,000 eunuchs in the Imperial palace.

The value of such employment—certain eunuchs gained immense power that may have superseded that of the prime ministers—was such that self-castration had to be made illegal. The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ had fallen to 470 in 1912, when their employment ceased. Eunuchs castrated before puberty were also valued and trained in several cultures for their exceptional voices, which retained a childlike and other-worldly flexibility and treble pitch.
Such eunuchs were known as castrati. Unfortunately the choice had to be made at an age when the boy would not yet be able to consciously choose whether to sacrifice his sexual potency, and there was no guarantee that the voice would remain of musical excellence after the operation.

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Amazing facts-What goes around

In 1965, at the age of four, Roger Lausier was swimming off a beach in Salem - he got into difficulties and was saved from drowning by a woman called Alice Blaise.


In 1974, on the same beach, Roger was out on a raft when he pulled a drowning man from the water - amazingly, the man he saved was Alice Blaise's husband.

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Bizarre facts-Self Mummification

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who allegedly caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their being mummified. This practice reportedly took place almost exclusively in northern Japan around the Yamagata Prefecture.

For three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls.This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it killed off any maggots that might cause the body to decay after death.

Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position.His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive.

When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. You can read more about this practice here.

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Strange happenings-She's Behind You!

Michael Dick had been travelling around the UK with his family to track down his daughter, Lisa - who he had lost contact with ten years earlier.

After a long fruitless search, he approached the Suffolk Free Press, who agreed to help him by putting an appeal in their newspaper.

Fortunately, his long lost daughter saw the appeal and the pair were reunited.

The odd thing was, his daughter had been right behind him when the free paper took the photograph - shown in the photograph above. What are the chances of that!

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Dark world-Goose clubbing

Until recently, an annual festival was held in Germany in which a goose was tied by its feet to a post and then clubbed by the local men until its head came off. As a result of complaints from animal rights activists, the festival-goers now hit a goose which has previously been killed. A very similar event occurs in Spain every year in which a man hangs from the goose until the head comes off. Again the goose is killed prior to the event which dates back 350 years. The Spanish festival is called Antzar Eguna.

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Bizarre facts-Old tradition of Foot binding

Foot Binding

Foot binding was a custom practiced on young females for approximately one thousand years in China, beginning in the 10th century and ending in the early 20th century.

In Chinese foot binding, young girls’ feet, usually at age 6 but often earlier, were wrapped in tight bandages so that they could not grow and develop normally; they would, instead, break and become highly deformed, not growing past 4-6 inches (10-15 cm). Today, it is a prominent cause of disability among some elderly Chinese women. First, each foot would be soaked in a warm mixture of herbs and animal blood. This concoction caused any necrotised flesh to fall off. Then her toenails were cut back as far as possible to prevent ingrowth and subsequent infections. To prepare her for what was to come next the girl’s feet were delicately massaged. Silk or cotton bandages, ten feet long and two inches wide, were prepared by soaking in the same blood and herb mix as before.Each of the toes were then broken and wrapped in the wet bandages, which would constrict when drying, and pulled tightly downwards toward the heel. There may have been deep cuts made in the sole to facilitate this.

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Bizarre facts-Unique paintings

Artist Kira Ayn Varszegi when creating her paintings uses so original technique that she came into the world's tabloids - instead of a brush she uses her breasts.

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Bizarre facts-Thaipusam festival

Thaipusam is a Hindu festival (celebrated mostly by Tamils) held in January/February each year to celebrate the birth of Murugan (the son of gods Shiva and Parvati). The participants shave their heads and perform a pilgrimage, at the end of which they shove very sharp skewers through their tongues or cheeks. Some of the practitioners put hooks into their back and pull heavy objects like tractors. The aim is to cause as much pain as possible - the more you endure, the more “blessings” you receive from the gods. The festival is popular in India, but the largest celebrations take place in Singapore and Malaysia, where it is a public holiday.

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Bizarre facts-Live Crab Vending Machines in China

Located in the Xinjiekou subway station, in Nanjing, China, this particular vending machine is full of live hairy crabs and crab vinegar, making it available to enjoy seafood on the go.

The quirky food dispenser was installed on the 1st of October, and at first, it surprised even the Chinese. People would stop and stare at the crustaceans inside, and others would even take out their cameras and take photos of them. Business was out to a slow start, with only one hairy crab sold per day, but as people got used to the thought of buying live crabs from a vending machine, the figures jumped to an impressive 200 crabs a day. People noticed they were cheaper than the crabs found at the local food markets, and buying them on their daily commute they also saved precious time.

Depending on size, crabs can be bought for as little as 15 yuan (two dollars). They all seem dead, but their actually just hibernating due to the low temperature in the vending machine.

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Strange facts-Man who almost won beauty contest

Miss Yakuta

This guy from Russian province Yakutia decided to take part in the beauty contest "Miss Yakutia".

He went to stylists, rented some nice dresses and after that made a portfolio at a professional photographer.

Later, he posted the pictures on the "Miss Yakutia" website and made it to the finals. Unfortunately, a couple of days later he was disqualified because somebody told the contest authorities that he was not a woman.

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Bizarre facts-Lucy McRae and Her Safety Pin Art

During the “Rojo Nova Work in Progress” exhibition at the Sao Paolo Museum of Image and Sound, Australian artist Lucy McRae showcased her unique safety pin art.

Trained as a classical ballerina and architect, Lucy McRae has evolved into a body architect who “invents and builds structures on the skin that re-shape the human silhouette.” In a statement, the museum says “her provocative and often grotesquely beautiful imagery suggests a new breed; a future human archetype existing in an alternate world.”







This time, she relied on hundreds of safety pins, glued on most of her body, to depict how evolved humans might look in the alternate world of her vision. The first reaction upon seeing her is something like “what has she done to her body?”, but then you notice the pins are just glued to her skin and you begin admiring Lucy McRae as a work of art.

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