The end of August being the time of the annual La Tomatina food fight in Bruno, Spain (a huge waste of potential spaghetti sauce, if you want my Italian opinion!), I got to wondering about the other weird festivals celebrated around the world.
After doing a little research around this wonderful world wide web of ours, here are 7 of the World’s Weirdest Festivals that I found:
1. SPAIN Baby Jumping Festival
As if running in front of bulls, or tossing tomatoes at each other in a vegetable bloodbath wasn’t enough (well, a fruit bloodbath, if you want to be accurate, since tomatoes are fruits), the Spanish folk in another town, Castrillo de Murcia, also like to dress up their men as red and yellow devils and have them jump over babies. Next up: Castrillo de Murchia’s Mom of the Year. (Ha!)
2. ENGLAND Cheese Rolling Competition
As a cheese lover, this feels a little like cruelty to one of my fave foods, but if you visit Gloucestershire in late spring, you might want to catch the spectacle of hundreds of folks racing to catch a 7-pound wheel of rolling cheese as it (and the runners) bounce down Coopers Hill. If you’ve ever wondered what folks do on a Bank Holiday in Gloucestershire, now you know.
3. JAPAN Konaki Sumo Crying Baby Competition
Babies again, but here’s something you don’t see every day: Sumo wrestlers facing off against each other with babies. In this challenge, whoever is holding the baby who wails first or loudest (if there is a tie) wins the competition. This 400 year-old Japanese tradition is rooted in the belief that evil spirits are driven away by the ritual, and that holding the babies aloft brings their cries closer to heaven and the corresponding blessings of good health. I guess this is one time you want to be the biggest crybaby.
4. MEXICO Night of the Radishes
Sounds like another horror movie from the people behind those Living Dead, but this weird festival dates back to the 1500s when radishes were first introduced to the Americas, and vendors in markets would advertise the produce by carving then into intricate sculptures. Maybe that would make me like radishes? … nope.
5. ITALY Orange Carnival
For reasons stated above, wasting tomatoes is OUT – instead, the Italians of the northern town of Ivrea celebrate this weird festival by ‘pitting’ teams of orange-tossers against one another in a mock battle, a carnival tradition dating back to medieval times. And to keep their energy levels up, the team players are fed with free beans. The problem with this last fact is too obvious to even comment on.
6. SWITZERLAND Turnip Parade
First the radish, now the humble turnip. While not reaching the popularity status of Halloween’s jack-o-lanterns, the carving of turnips into candles for this festival makes for some pretty nifty floats. Because what would a turnip festival be without a turnip lantern parade, and plenty of music and entertainment. (Apparently you can make hooch from turnips, which might contribute to the fun, as well as explain a lot here.)
7. ENGLAND World Gurning Championships
“Gurn“: a distorted facial expression. Possibly derived from Scottish, relating to “grin“. Clearly a natural subject for a global competition, I would think. And if you have no teeth, all the better – making it a natural for rural England in the 13th century! This one got its start in 1267 when King Henry VIII granted the Egremont Fair in Cumbria a Royal Charter. Entertainment comes in many forms, and I guess between the beheadings and the wives and all, this was another popular diversion for England’s top guy at the time.
The really weird thing here: this list of weird festivals only scratches the surface!
This weird festivals list is by no means definitive or complete – I just picked a few that I thought were a good start. I’m not sure if they’re exactly my cup of tea (the reference to England because they were represented here twice – just sayin’), but it does make exploring the world even more fun – even if it’s just as a spectator.
P.S. If you know of more weird festivals around the world, or have been to one, I’d love to hear about it!
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