We all love to celebrate events like the spring, harvest, religious events, and many more. A lot of them are related to tradition and history, and the uniqueness can be seen through various costumes that are worn during the festival. Youth and modern festivals are not always related to music but also to food and culture. But do you know that there are many strange and unusual festivals around the world that still exist today? Let’s take a look at the 10 most unusual festivals in the world
1. Mud Festival
The Boryeong Mud Festival is an annual festival that takes place during the summer in Boryeong, a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea. You can enjoy the mud pool, mudslides, mud prison, and mud skiing competitions, with the most interesting being the mud wrestling and mud fireworks. Yes, it is all related to mud! Don’t forget your soap if you want to participate.
2. Baby Jumping Fiesta
This event takes place in the small town of Castrillo de Murcia, Spain. In this festival, there is a man dressed as a devil who jumps over the babies. This an old traditional festival that exists since 1620. There is a love of controversy surrounding the festival, but it is believed to cleanse the babies of original sin.
3. Color-Throwing Festival
Holi festival is also known as the “festival of spring”, the “festival of colors”, and the “festival of love. It is a popular ancient Hindu festival originally from India but today this festival has also spread to other regions of Asia and parts of the Western world through the diaspora from the Indian subcontinent. The festival is a symbol of the triumph of good over evil.
4. Monkey Buffet Festival
In Thailand there is an entire festival dedicated to feeding the monkeys, every year on the last Sunday of November people in Lapbury, the oldest city of Thailand, prepare a huge banquet for the monkeys who live in this area. Obviously the monkeys are very happy with this, they probably wonder why this festival is not every day.
5. Battle of Oranges
Every year the citizens of the old medieval town of Ivrea in Italy, remember their liberation with the Battle of the Oranges. People gather in the main square to throw oranges at each other, and it is the biggest food fight in Italy.
6. Up Helly Aa
This is the biggest fire festival in Europe and sees local men in the Shetland region of Scotland dress as Vikings and set things on fire. The festival is held annually from January to March to celebrate the end of the Yule season, with the largest festival held in Lerwick, Shetland’s capital. This involves a procession of up to a thousand men who march through the streets of Lerwick on the last Tuesday in January.
7. Naked Festival
Every year, usually in the summer or winter, the Hadaka Matsuri or Naked Festival is held in dozens of places throughout Japan. The most popular place to celebrate this event is Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri in Okayama, where the festival originated over 500 years ago. Every year, over 9000 men participate in this festival in hopes of gaining luck for the entire year.
8. Floating Lanterns
The Floating Lantern Festival is held every year during Memorial Day on Ala Moana Beach in Hawaii. Thousands of people gather on the beach and float lanterns at sunset with messages for loved ones who they have lost, generating collective hope toward the future.
9. La Tomatina Festival
La Tomatina is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in the East of Spain 30 kilometers from the Mediterranean. During this festival participants throw tomatoes as part of a giant tomato fight. The reason for painting the town in red with numerous tonnes of juicy fruit? Pure, unadulterated enjoyment. Amazing, isn’t it?
10. Buso Festival
The Buso Festival of The Busójárás is an annual celebration of the Šokci living in the town of Mohács, Hungary. The event is held at the end of the Carnival season and ends the day before Ash Wednesday. The celebration features Busós (people wearing traditional masks) and includes folk music, masquerading, parades, and dancing. These traditional festivities were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO in 2009.
