BUNGEE JUMPING

BUNGEE JUMPING

In the 1950s David Attenborough and a BBC film crew brought back footage of the "land divers" of Pentecost Island in Vanuatu, young men who jumped from tall wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles as a test of courage.
A similar practice, only with a much slower pace for falling, has been practiced as the Danza de los Voladores de Papantla or the 'Papantla flyers' of central Mexico, a tradition dating back to the days of the Aztecs.
Pentecost Island is most famous for being the spiritual birthplace of the extreme sport of bungee jumping, originating in an ages old ritual called the naghol, or Land Diving. Between April and June every year, men in the southern part of the island jump from tall towers with vines tied to their feet, in a ritual believed to ensure a good yam harvest. The ritual is also now used to show acceptance into manhood.
Land diving was first given international exposure when David Attenborough and a BBC film crew brought back footage of the ritual during
the 1950s.
Queen Elizabeth II visited Pentecost in 1974 and witnessed a land diving ceremony, during which one unfortunate islander died because the jump was performed during a dry season, when the vines were much less elastic.
Nowadays, tourists pay large sums of money to witness the ceremony, often during day trips from Port Vila.