After the debates there is a very strange religious play in the main temple which seems to be about rabbits and Gods where the Yamabushi dressed up in funny animal costumes. I won't even try to explain it, but it is bizarre. When the rabbit play finally ends, they go back into a clearing for the highlight of the festival. There are two ropes, each more than a metre in diameter and about 30 feet long. The men from the two villages take off their festival clothes and stand around in the freezing night wearing nothing but loincloths.
Huge bonfires are lit, and people start lining up along the two giant ropes.
Excitement is added by introducing the element of fire. Each rope is doused with gas and lit on fire. Then one brave man from each village climbs on the blazing rope and his fellows line up along the sides, holding on to the smaller ropes. The head priest starts them off and you are treated to the sight of a hundred or so drunken, nearly naked men dragging huge, blazing ropes in a race through the snow as the spectators cheer. After that people gather around the main temple, which is beautifully illuminated, to listen as the Temple Bell is rung 108 times to signal the beginning of the new year.