Posted
on February 28, 2015
Every
year, on the last Saturday of February, the Swords Swallower
Association International celebrates its special day in conjunction
with Ripley Entertainment.
(You
know, the people who do the Ripley's Believe It Or Not stuff.)
Sword
swallowing is of course not actually swallowing. Instead, sword
swallowers actually inhibit the urge to swallow in order to keep the
passage from the mouth to the esophagus to the stomach open as the
sword is lowered and then raised again.
According
to Wikipedia, sword swallowing is dangerous, and there is risk of
injury.
Really?
Passing a sword down your esophagus to your stomach is dangerous? Who
knew???
(I
think I would NOT want to be a sword swallower in a place prone to
earthquakes!)
Sword
swallowing started in southern India thousands of years ago. It
spread to ancient Greece and Rome, and also to ancient China and
Japan. It became part of street performance in some places, and
theatre in other places, along with other ancient entertainments such
as tightrope walking, fire eating, and juggling.
Eventually
sword swallowing became part of circus acts and side shows.
Apparently sword swallowers kept trying to one-up each other—curved
swords, multiple swords, longer swords, hot swords, bayonets, even
neon tubes!
Guess
how many deaths have resulted from all that competitive sword
swallowing? (Answer below the photos:)
Just
twenty-nine deaths have been reported as a result of sword swallowing
injuries in the last 135 years. So sword swallowing, it turns out, is
way safer than, say, traveling anywhere by any means (plane, train,
automobiles, bicycles, or even roller skates)!
Still,
it's something I just don't get. I wouldn't want to learn it OR watch
it, even if the act was free. And—needless to say—don't try this
at home!
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