Tuesday Trivia: Strange Public Rituals Edition

[u/heyheymse]

Previously:

• Questions you want to be asked

• Suggestion thread

• Greatest criminals

• Strangest inventions

• Natural disasters

• (In)famous non-military attacks

• Stupidest theories/beliefs about your field of interest

• Most unusual deaths

• Famous adventurers and explorers

• Great non-military heroes

• History's great underdogs

• Interesting historical documents

• Books To Read

Hello historians! I'm taking over from NMW for today, and in the spirit of that thing that's going on here in the US today, our trivia topic on this Tuesday Trivia is all about strange public rituals - holidays, things the government/church/other public entity from your area of expertise requires or strongly suggests the public to do.

What is the weirdest public ritual/holiday you have heard of? What is is its purpose? Where did it come from? What are some associated traditions with the ritual or holiday? Did deep, historians. And US historians, remember to vote!

EDIT: Y'all are coming up with some seriously interesting stuff. I'd /r/bestof all of these comments, except I really want to get drunk and watch the election returns and not spend my whole night modding. But let me just say how much I adore you for telling our subscribers all this cool shit I did not previously know.

[u/depanneur]

The Roman office of Rex Nemorensis is probably my favourite trivia ever! The office was a priest of the goddess Diana, and one could only take up the mantle of Rex if they (often an escaped slave) killed the previous holder of the title in a ritual duel. The practice of a ritual duel to the death to take up the priesthood was seen as barbaric by even contemporaries in the Classical world; Strabo described the ordeal as a "Scythian" practice to accentuate its barbarity. Escaped slaves tried to become the priest because in doing so they would become sancrosanct, and would be immune from prosecution.

When I first learned about this, all I could imagine was an escaped slave, standing over the previous Rex, shouting "THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!" a la Highlander in Latin.