The world is full of not only, weird people that do things unusually on individual level but collectively too. Every year huge number of people gather at a particular venue to either take part or witness the most bizarre happenings. These happenings are actually organized and celebrated on the grand scale.
From rolling cheese in Gloucestershire to wife-carrying in Scandinavia, the world is full of unusual, colorful and downright bizarre events that attract many locals and tourists.
Not only the ones who are already there to visit a particular place, instead lot many people plan their trip to the place around that festival or event to be the part of it or atleast witness the bizarre event.
To the OddStuffLab blog that promises to offer the weirdest treat, the list of bizarre festivals around the globe deserved a special mention. Correct me if I am wrong! So, here I am with the extremely different festivals that pull oodles of people from across the world.
I can’t promise that each one of the most unusual festivals and events listed below will be of everyone’s taste, but one thing that’s common is that each one is amazingly weird and will indeed catch your attention. Sit back and enjoy the best selection of some of the unusual festivals around the world. Don’t be disheartened if you see any festival or event in the list that you never knew about. You still can plan to be the part of the weirdest festival(s) which successfully exerted a pull on you.
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1. Cheese Rolling Festival, UK
The Cheese-Rolling is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper’s Hill, near Gloucester in the Cotswolds region of England. It is traditionally by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth that does not limit there. People from all parts of the world come to participate. Each year, an official tosses cheese down the extremely steep hill, and festival-goers run pell-mell in order to catch it. We can well understand the risk factor, the festival results in a number of casualties.
2. Boryeong Mud Festival
First staged in 1998, the Boryeong Mud Festival is one of the major attractions that pulls more than a million visitors to the South Korean city. As you all know, the town is said to be rich in minerals, there is no shortage of mud, it is trucked in to Daecheon Beach for tourists and locals to enjoy the festival to their best.
3. Montana Testicle Festival, USA
The Montana Testicle Festival takes place on the last weekend in July or first weekend in August sometimes on the first weekend of July in Rock Creek Lodge-Clinton, Montana in America. Strange it might sound but this festival is a tribute to the eating of ‘Bulls Balls’. It includes notable events like wet t-shirt contest, hairy chest competition and the bullshit bingo.
4. Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Spain
Also known by the name Near-Death-Festival, it takes place in the month of July in the town of Las Nieves, Pontevedra in Galicia; Spain. The festival is held for people who have suffered near-death experiences in the last year. The participants gather for a Mass in celebration of the Patron Saint of resurrection, Saint Marta de Ribarteme by either carrying a coffin, or being carried in a coffin. The festival ends with fireworks and in the end religious objects are sold out to those interested.
5. Thaipusam, India, Malaysia, Singapore
Thaipusam is a Hindu festival held in January/February in India, Singapore and Malaysia every year. It is celebrated mostly by Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai and celebrates the birth of Murugan, the son of gods Shiva and Parvati.
The revelers shave their heads to perform a pilgrimage, and it spirals downwards from there during the celebration. At the end of the rituals, participants shove sharp skewers through their tongues or cheeks and some put hooks on their back to pull heavy objects. Bizarre it might sound but the aim of the festivities is to endure as much pain as possible and those who endure the most pain are said to be given the most blessings.
6. El Colacho (Baby Jumping Festival), Spain
Baby jumping (El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish practice dating back to 1620 that takes place once a year. It was started to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos. During the act, known as El Salto del Colacho (the devil’s jump) or simply El Colacho, men dressed as the Devil also known as the Colacho jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street. It is believed that the jumping rids babies of original sin, and is considered almost like a baptism.
7. Wife Carrying World Championships
Wife carrying is a sport in which male competitors race while each carrying their wife. The objective is for the male to carry the female through a special obstacle track in the fastest time. First introduced at Sonkajärvi, Finland, the sport long with the wife carrying world championships also includes a team and a sprint competition that has the humorous aspect and deep rooted local history behind.
8. Hadaki Matsuri (Naked Festival)
Hadaka Matsuri is a type of Japanese festival in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth, sometimes with a short happi coat and rarely are completely naked. Whatever the clothing, it is considered to be above vulgar on the level of holy Japanese shrine attire. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is held in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival.
9. The Redneck Games, Georgia, USA
The Redneck Games are held in East Dublin, Georgia yearly. The games were started by General Manager Mac Davis in response to a comment made by the media that when the 1996 Olympic Games went to Atlanta it would be held by a group of rednecks. Mac Davis took this as an offense and along with some locals set up the annual Redneck Games to reinforce the stereotype the media held.
The festival includes events like the cigarette flip, the mudpit belly flop, bobbing for pigs feet, the big hair contest, the hubcap hurl, the seed spitting contest, bug zapper spitball, dumpster diving and everyone’s favorite, the armpit serenade. The event has raised some controversy over the years. Some locals have come forward saying they think the term is derogatory. But the fact still remains that it is one of the most bizarre festivals.
10. Monkey Buffet Festival, Thailand
The Monkey Buffet Festival is held annually in Thailand to promote tourism. The festival was described as one of the strangest festivals by London’s The Guardian newspaper. It’s an annual feast held for approximately 600 monkeys. The Monkey Buffet Festival is held in honor of the Hindu God Ram and Hanuman and involves 3,000 kg vegetables and fruits being laid out for monkeys to stuff themselves on. The grand feast is held annually for monkeys on the last Sunday of November which is the most talked about events in the country.
11. La Tomatina, Buñol, Valencia
The industrial town of Brunol welcomes 20,000 visitors to throw tomatoes at one another in an oversized food fight. In the festival, tons of tomatoes are used. Following some rules, people throw tomatoes at each other and enjoy the festival.
If you think any of the weirdest festival/event is missing in the list that desrve a mention, feel free to share with us. We would love to hear from you!
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