Every year, the town of Kawasaki, Japan hosts Kanamara Matsuri, or the Festival of the Steel Phallus. It’s a Shinto fertility festival that takes place on the first Sunday in April every year.
According to Notes of Nomads, legend states that during the Edo period (1603-1867), a demon fell in love with a beautiful woman, but the woman rejected him. So he decided to haunt her vagina and bite off the penises of any men she married and had sex with. The demon’s reign of terror was stopped when a local blacksmith forged a steel penis to trick the demon. After the demon broke his teeth on the steel penis, legend says he stopped haunting the woman’s vagina and everything was good.
In addition to praying for fertility, attendees also pray to not contract STDs. Both penis- and vagina-shaped candies, sausages, snacks, and other novelty items like candles and masks are sold. As you’ll see in the photos below, penises are clearly everyone’s favorite.
Here are photos from the 2015 Penis Festival:
And here’s a video of the festival from last year:
[via Notes of Nomads]