Oh, these oriental oddities: why do the Japanese set fire to the mountain every year

Every year in January, a festival is held in the Japanese city of Nara, during which a mountain is set on fire. The festival also includes a torchlight procession and the launch of many fireworks, which turn this holiday into a real dream of pyromaniacs.

The festival is called "Jamaica", which literally means "fried mountain" in Japanese. It is held on the fourth Saturday of January and begins with the ceremonial lighting of a torch at the Kasuga Taisha Shinto shrine.

From there, groups of participants carry torches around the city towards Mount Wakakusa, an extinct volcano towering 350 meters above the city.

At 6 pm, fireworks explode, and after that the roasting of the mountain begins.

The fire covers the entire Wakakusa and burns usually from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how many dry plants accumulate on the mountain.

The origins of this tradition are unknown, but people assume that it is connected either with the scaring of wild boars, or with a long-standing land dispute between two temples.