KEY POINTS:
Contestants make a chaotic dash through the grounds of a shrine in Japan as they try to clinch the title of "Lucky Person."
It was an early morning start for some 2,500 people who gathered at a shrine in western Japan for the annual mission to become the lucky person of the year.
Shrine officials say that it was around the 14th century that locals first started hurrying to the shrine on this sacred day in order to to offer prayers.
The shrine is dedicated to the god Ebisu, a patron of businessmen and merchants.
- REUTERS
