Bungee jumping ━━━━━━ ⚫ ━━━━━━ Every Saturday from April to June, the Nagol Land Diving ritual is performed on Pentecost Island (Vanuatu) in association with the annual yam harvest. It’s one of the most spectacular and death-defying cultural ceremonies in the world. Local men and boys (as young as 7 years old) of the Sa Tribe jump off headfirst from a wooden tower 30 meters high with only a couple of tree vines wrapped around their ankles. They are the original bungee jumpers and it was this ritual that inspired AJ Hackett to start a commercialized version of bungee jumping as we know it today. The whole ritual is said to have started from a dysfunctional marriage. As the legend goes, “a woman decided to flee into the jungle to escape daily confrontations with her spouse. Hotly pursued by her husband, she ran up a tree then tied a vine around her ankle and jumped from the top, landing safely. The husband followed suit but without the aid of the vine he hit the ground with a fatal splat. Inspired by the woman’s act of defiance, the women of Pentecost began land diving for fun. But uneasy with seeing the women dangling from trees in compromising positions, the island’s men called an end to their fun and stole the activity for themselves.