Japanese pray for end of COVID-19 in the annual ice bath ritual at Tokyo shrine

Men wearing traditional loin clothes and women dressed in white robes took an ice water bath during the annual Shinto ritual at a Tokyo shrine 'to purify soul and pray for the end of COVID-19 pandemic'. After doing warming-up exercises and chanting amid 5.1 °C temperature, the participants went into a bath filled with cold water and large ice blocks.