People in a western Japan town hold an annual fire festival

People in a western Japan town hold an annual fire festival to usher in spring. Flaming arrows are used to ignite a vast expanse of withered grass to eliminate harmful insects and help new shoots to grow. About 100,000 square meters of burning turf flared up against the dark sky in Wakayama Prefecture’s Kushimoto Town on Saturday.

The event started at little past 5:30 P.M local time and twelve members of a local high school’s Japanese archery club shot fire-tipped arrows from a hill onto the turf at Cape Shionomisaki. Event staff stoked the flames as firefighters looked on. The grass burned away in about an hour, crackling as it turned to ash. The tourism association said new sprouts will begin growing in the burnt field in about two months.