February 28 – International Sword Swallowers Day

nPostednon February 28, 2015

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nEverynyear, on the last Saturday of February, the Swords SwallowernAssociation International celebrates its special day in conjunctionnwith Ripley Entertainment.

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n(Younknow, the people who do the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not stuff.)

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nSwordnswallowing is of course not actually swallowing. Instead, swordnswallowers actually inhibit the urge to swallow in order to keep thenpassage from the mouth to the esophagus to the stomach open as thensword is lowered and then raised again.

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nAccordingnto Wikipedia, sword swallowing is dangerous, and there is risk ofninjury.

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nReally?nPassing a sword down your esophagus to your stomach is dangerous? Whonknew???

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n(Inthink I would NOT want to be a sword swallower in a place prone tonearthquakes!)

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nSwordnswallowing started in southern India thousands of years ago. Itnspread to ancient Greece and Rome, and also to ancient China andnJapan. It became part of street performance in some places, andntheatre in other places, along with other ancient entertainments suchnas tightrope walking, fire eating, and juggling.

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nEventuallynsword swallowing became part of circus acts and side shows.nApparently sword swallowers kept trying to one-up each other—curvednswords, multiple swords, longer swords, hot swords, bayonets, evennneon tubes! n

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nGuessnhow many deaths have resulted from all that competitive swordnswallowing? (Answer below the photos:)

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nJustntwenty-nine deaths have been reported as a result of sword swallowingninjuries in the last 135 years. So sword swallowing, it turns out, isnway safer than, say, traveling anywhere by any means (plane, train,nautomobiles, bicycles, or even roller skates)!

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nStill,nit’s something I just don’t get. I wouldn’t want to learn it OR watchnit, even if the act was free. And—needless to say—don’t try thisnat home!

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nAlsonon this date:

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