The World’s Most Dangerous Cultural Traditions

Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival

Photo Credit: Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images

On the day of Lunar New Year in Tainan, Taiwan, thousands of people gather together in makeshift armor for the Yanshui Beehive Firework Festival. Placed within the crowds are “beehives” of hundreds of thousands of fireworks, constructed to detonate directly into the crowd.

The tradition is said to have started in the 19th century as a way of stopping cholera and plague epidemic ravaging the city. They claim that the sulfur in the fireworks killed the bacteria and that the noise scared away all of the diseased rats. The tradition has carried on until today with an estimation of 1.4 million rockets being propelled into the crowd.

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