Tokyo, Feb. 18 -- Thousands of near-naked men seeking luck have scrambled to find two sacred sticks as part of an ancient Japanese festival. It's thought about 10,000 men wearing white loincloths took part in the ceremony at the Kinryozan Saidaiji Buddhist temple in Okayama on Saturday, said a BBC News report. Participants were purified in water before scrambling to find sticks that had been thrown into the crowd. Those who found the 20cm-long sticks, called "shingi", are believed to be the luckiest men of the year. This was the 510th anniversary of the Saidaiji-eyo festival, which dates back to the Muromachi period of Japanese history. It kicked off with the thousands of participants bathing in cold water in the Yoshii river, in order to p...