As you board flights for your holidays this spring and summer, it can be stressful knowing exactly how big your hand luggage can be and what you can and can't put in it - but Ryanair's rules allow for some very unusual items.

While their free 'small personal bag' rules seem to continue to leave travellers baffled about whether their bag qualifies or not, they are seemingly less strict about what's in it.

Most airlines, Ryanair included, allow passengers to bring a 'small personal bag' for free on flights, with the rule it must fit under your seat.

If you haven't bought the extra hand luggage option, there's a high risk you will be fined for carrying a bag bigger than 40x30x20, so it's vital that everything you pack has a purpose.

Ryanair prohibits a very long list of items onboard their flights, including the likes of certain razors, some alcohols, and sports equipment; however, you'll be surprised to learn what you are allowed to pack.

The list of items the airline will permit onboard includes a lot of things that don't necessarily seem essential to your everyday traveller. Accept, if it doesn't seem to pose a risk of danger, they will welcome the weirdest of items onboard.

According to the Ryanair website, you can in fact travel with ashes onboard the aircraft as a permitted item in your cabin bags or as an addition to your typical allowance. Although, it must be accompanied by a death certificate and cremation certificate.

They ask: "Please make sure that any ashes are very securely packaged inside a suitable container with a screw-top lid and that this is protected against breakage."

Along with it, you are allowed to take a parachute in your carry-on bag, including paragliding wings, as long as they fit the standard size and weight.

If you wanted to be extra safe, you could even supply yourself with your own life jacket, so long as it contains two carbon dioxide cylinders and two spares.

Often there is confusion when it comes to what electronics you can take onboard in your hand luggage, and it seems the answer is a lot more than you think. According to their website, Ryanair allows for "up to 15 personal electronic devices" onboard.

This includes smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, handheld game consoles, headphones and power banks. The exception is they must not exceed 100 Wh each, which includes the likes of spare lithium batteries or power banks, which, if they fit this bracket, are allowed.

The requirements for these electronics are slightly more specific, however, with the airline stating: "Spare lithium batteries must be individually protected to prevent short circuits by: placement in original retail packaging, or insulating terminals by taping over exposed terminals, or placing each battery in a separate plastic bag or protective pouch."

As for items that are 'strictly prohibited', this mostly applies to objects that could cause harm or pose a serious risk of danger. Their list includes:

• Guns, firearms and other devices that discharge projectiles - devices capable, or appearing capable, of being used to cause serious injury by discharging a projectile.

• Stunning devices - devices designed specifically to stun or immobilise

• Explosives and incendiary substances and devices

• Items designed for chopping, such axes, hatchets and cleavers,
• Ice axes, ice picks and ice skates,
• Razors and razor blades (except safety or disposable razors with enclosed blades and razor heads held in plastic compartments),
• Box cutters,
• Knives with blades of more than 6cm, including lockable or flick knives, ceremonial or religious knives and hunting knives made of metal or any other material strong enough to be used as a potential weapon, craft knives and utility knives and scrapers,
• Scissors with blades of more than 6cm, as measured from the fulcrum,
• Martial arts equipment with a sharp point or sharp edge, including throwing stars,
• Swords and sabres,
• Swordsticks, meat cleavers, machetes, Scalpels, crampons, grappling irons, hooked bars of iron and plates with iron spikes used in mountaineering,
• Harpoons and spears,
• Ski poles and walking or hiking poles

• crowbars,
• drills and drill bits, including cordless portable power drills,
• tools with a blade or a shaft of more than 6 cm capable of use as a weapon, such as screwdrivers and chisels,
• saws, including cordless portable power saws,
• blowtorches,
• bolt guns and nail guns,
• hammers, pliers, wrenches and spanners
• Baseball and softball bats,
• Clubs and batons, such as billy clubs, blackjacks and night sticks,
• Martial arts equipment (for example, knuckledusters, coshes, flails),
• Tennis rackets, squash rackets and so on,
• Cricket bats,
• Hockey sticks, hurley sticks and lacrosse sticks,
• Kayak and canoe paddles,
• Skateboards,
• Billiard, snooker and pool cues,
• Darts,
• Fishing rods.

As for liquids, each item must be in a container of no more than 100 ml and carried in a single, transparent plastic bag up to 20 cm x 20 cm.

Ryanair asks that you must be able to "completely seal the bag" and fit it into your hand luggage. It will likely be taken out of your baggage to be screened separately.