29 Apr 2010

THURSDAY THIRTEEN - The craziest festivals


more participants here

As in Belgium we regularly have the festival of crazy politicians, I was looking if other countries have crazy festivals too.

Here are 13 crazy festivals


1. Crying Babies Festival - Japan

Held every year, at the Sensoji Temple, in Tokyo, the baby crying festival is a 400-year-old tradition, believed to keep rug-rats in good health. Amateur sumo wrestlers hold the babies high in the air, and try to scare them into crying, while a sumo referee judges the match. The toddler who cries longest and loudest is considered the winner.


2. Naked men festival - Japan
Dating back over 1200 years, the Hadaka Matsuri festival takes place at several small-town locations throughout Japan. Its origins lie in a decree issued by Emperor Shotoko in 767, which ordered the nation to offer prayers in order to dispel a plague



3. Wife carrying festival - Finland
men carry their wives on their backs through over 250m of obstacles, including a water jump. The winner is awarded his spouse's weight in beer.




4. Wine battle festival - Spain
on horseback, the procession winds through the town to the Cliffs of Bilibio, where a mass is celebrated at the Hermitage of San Felices de Bilibio. After the mass a true free-for-all begins, with everyone tossing wine on each other until all are soaked from head to foot. There is a sea of wet, pink shirts everywhere.



5. Tomatoe festival. Spain
La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region of Spain. Tens of metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets in exactly one hour.


6. Baby jumping Festival, Spain
(El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish practice dating back to 1620 that takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast of babies in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos.[1][2][3] During the act - known as El Salto del Colacho (the devil's jump) or simply El Colacho – men dressed as the Devil (known as the Colacho) jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street.



7. Penis festival in Japon, in honor of male fertility


8. Fishing Festival in Nigeria. Here, men can be real men by pulling the biggest fish out of the river with their bare hands, proving to the watching ladies that they, in fact, are the best catch.


9. Mud Festival, South corea. Women fight to become "Mud Queen"


10.Las Fallas festival in Spain Las Fallas literally means "the fires" The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (“puppets” or “dolls”), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues in huge fires

11.Color festival in India, throwing colored powder at people



12. Cheese Rolling Festival, UK.From the top of the hill a round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors race down the hill after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese, however it has about a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70mph (112 km/h), enough to knock over and injure a spectator.


13. Monkey Buffet Festival, Thailand
Everyone loves a monkey but no one as much as the Thais. They create 3 tonne smorgasbord of fruit and tasty treats and they invite around 600 monkeys to run enjoy the feast while they watch

22 comments:

  1. IMF I'd love to go to every single one of those. How fun each in there own way. I've been to a Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. Aye goat gonads cooked so many different ways I couldn't see straight. LOL

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  2. Some truly weird festivals. I had never heard of most of t hem. And I do not know who in their right mind would put a baby on a mattress and hae a man jumping over it. I mean have they ever thought the man may fall on top of the babies??

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  3. Oh my....hilarious. Y'know the one [really don't know if it's considered a festival or not tho] that I could never figure out the 'fun' of it, is the 'running of the bulls'.

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  4. For goodness sake humans are a weird lot!!!
    A very funny post. The mind boggles at the thought of a penis festival...trust men to think of that one.

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  5. I think that Spain has the weirdest ones. Because once you add the running of the Bulls, then you have one crazy country!

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  6. that jumping over the babies, the man better be a champoin jumper. LOL

    They are all over funny.

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  7. Wow! Some of those are truly bizarre. The baby crying one sounds kind of mean though. Poor babies.
    Happy T13!

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  8. What a weird lot of festivals. I'd worry if someone attemted a jump over my tiny grandson... Have a wonderful weekend, Gattina.

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  9. What a weird lot of festivals. I'd worry if someone attemted a jump over my tiny grandson... Have a wonderful weekend, Gattina.

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  10. I've seen pictures of some of those. I certainly would not want to be there.

    Have a great day!
    http://harrietandfriends.com/2010/04/101-things-you-can-do-with-what/

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  11. Wow...those are some crazy festivals all right! The jumping-over-babies festival looks downright scary. I sure wouldn't want someone trying to jump over my baby!

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  12. Ha Ha! These are awesome! Although... I don't know about the baby ones. They should do a study to see if any of those kids grow up with peculiar phobias :D

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  13. Those are some truly wacky festivals. Most of them sound like fun. ;)

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  14. Certainly crazy! I like the idea of the one with the tomatoes, but the stench must be unbelievable!!

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  15. These are all so weird and interesting! But the ones involving the crying babies and sleeping babies really bother me. =(

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  16. Very funny. I really like the fishing net photo, and apparently clothes are optional at the cheese rolling festival.

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  17. whaoooo i wish i could see them with naked eye

    weird is good sometimes

    Ticke me off Instantly

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  18. Do you know this year the cheeserolling festival was supposedly banned due to "health and safety considerations"..!

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  19. Oh how I wish Dr. John was still alive! I would LOVE to (lovingly) tease him about that WIFE carrying festival! LOL! I think he did have that as one of the Pigeon Falls Days Festival activities though... ROFL!!!

    And Baby Jumping??? THAT is CRAZY!!!

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  20. I don't know which festival I like best.

    I know I don't like the ones with the poor babies. either the scaring or jumping over them.

    Now that mud one?... well, I did some puddle playing as a child. Don't think I ever came close to that, tho. ha.

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  21. Love this...crying babies, baby jumping, penis, mud, cheese rolling...who knew?!? LOL

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