We all love a good festival. Community gatherings to celebrate everything from the coming of spring to a good harvest or religious milestones have occurred around the world since man first learned how to party. Many of these events are time-honored traditions, steeped in history and local custom. Modern festivals celebrating food, music, and culture are happening every week somewhere around the world.

However, there are also some truly bizarre festivals that make the barn dance in the hay shed look positively boring. Some are based on traditional ceremonies, others have commercial origins, and a handful are held in support of a good cause. From jumping over babies to mud fights and a parade of all things phallic, here are some of the most unusual festivals from around the world.

10 Boryeong Mud Festival
South Korea

Tourists and locals alike are happy as pigs in mud during July in the town of Boreyong in South Korea. For two weeks, the Boryeong Mud Festival draws millions of visitors from around the globe. Here, you can wallow in mud along the coastline and enjoy the cosmetic benefits of the mud’s mineral qualities.

The festival began in the late 1990s to promote the region’s mud-based cosmetic products but has developed into a major tourist event. Truckloads of mud are laid out on Daecheon Beach, where festivalgoers enjoy mud wrestling, mud skiing, mud slides, and even body painting with specially colored mud. You can also enjoy a rejuvenating mud massage.^[1]

9 Kanamara Matsuri
Japan

You wouldn’t imagine finding a penis-themed festival anywhere in the world, let alone in Japan, a culture often associated with modesty. The Kanamara Matsuri festival in honor of all things phallic arose from a local phallic shrine. According to legend, a large iron phallus was constructed to thwart a penis-eating demon and enshrined outside the village. Prostitutes would come to the Kanayama Shrine to pray for protection from certain occupational hazards, namely STDs.

In modern times, the focus has shifted to fertility for young married women, and the festival also raises funds for research into HIV. Each April, three large phallic shrines are paraded through the streets for an hour-long parade. At the end of the parade, festivalgoers can feast on local foods as well as phallic-shaped lollipops and carved fruit or even try their hand at a spot of penis-carving with fruit.^[2]

Not surprisingly, a large number of novelty souvenir items are also on sale.

8 Night Of The Radishes
Mexico

Fancy refining your pumpkin carving skills to something a little smaller? Carved radishes are the feature of a Christmas festival in the Mexican city of Oaxaca.

Noche de Los Rabanos (Night of the Radishes) began during the 19th century, when market stall holders aimed to attract Christmas churchgoers to sample their wares in the village square with intricately carved radishes to decorate the Christmas table. December 23 was officially proclaimed the Night of the Radishes in 1897.

Tourists and locals alike flock to admire carvings themed on everything from traditional nativity scenes to historic local culture. Radishes for the event were initially sourced from local farmers. However, the popularity of the contest has grown to the point where a dedicated radish plantation has been established outside the city to provide contestants with material for their artistic sculptures.

A large cash prize is up for grabs today for the best carved radish display.^[3]

7 Hair Freezing Contest
Canada

Winter in the North is so cold that you wouldn’t imagine setting foot outside without headwear in case your hair freezes. Yet in Canada, there is an entire festival dedicated to creating the most bizarre frozen hair sculptures. In February each year, the town of Whitehorse, Yukon, holds the annual International Hair Freezing Competition.^[4]

With temperatures at around minus 20, festivalgoers converge on the Takhini Hot Pools to create their icy coiffures. Simply soak your head in the water, and when you lift it out, the freezing air outside will complete the sculpture for you. The winners are announced in March.

6 Pidakala War
India

Being hit by a flying cow pie is said to bring the utmost good luck in an Indian village in the Pradesh region. Each April, villagers of Kairuppala hurl cow dung at each other at the end of their Ugadi festival.^[5] The bizarre street fight is said to bring health, prosperity, and rain to anyone fortunate enough to be hit by the smelly missiles.

Thousands gather to watch the reenactment of a mythical marriage dispute between the goddess Bhadrakali and Lord Veerabhadra Swarmy before eventually celebrating the nuptials. If you happen to be injured by a piece of flying cow dung, never fear: It is said to contain special healing qualities.

5 Monkey Buffet Festival
Thailand

Visit most animal sanctuaries around the world, and you will be asked not to feed the animals. However, in Thailand, there is an entire festival dedicated to feeding the monkeys. On the last Sunday of November each year, the residents of Lopburi, one of the oldest cities in Thailand, prepare a massive banquet specifically for their resident monkeys.

Long-tailed macaques inhabit the ancient Khmer ruins and also freely roam the streets of Lopburi, gnawing on everything from food scraps to electricity cables. However, the monkeys are considered to be descended from the Monkey King and to bring good luck, so the locals are unwilling to engage in any sort of pest control. Instead, they hold a banquet in their honor, and local residents decorate their homes with fruit sculptures to attract good fortune and prosperity from the long-tailed inhabitants.

The festival is held at the ruins, where huge banquet tables of fruit, salads, and sticky rice are set out for the monkeys to share with festivalgoers. Just don’t be surprised to find a monkey perched on your head to share your food.^[6]

4 International Worm Charming Festival
England

Catching worms might not be everyone’s idea of a fun way to spend a day, unless you are a keen fisherman looking for some fresh bait. Nevertheless, hundreds of people flock to a small town in Devon for an annual worm charming festival. The event is held each May in Blackawton.

Teams of three are allotted a small field, from which the aim is to collect the most worms in 15 minutes. Contestants can use any means to entice their worms to the surface, including tapping like a bird, using a fork, or pouring liquid on the surface. This was apparently how the idea of the worm farming festival was conceived. A couple of pub patrons relieved themselves in the sand on the way home and were amazed to see worms wriggling to the surface.

The competition itself is over in a very short time, but there are numerous other activities throughout the day to entertain festivalgoers.^[7]

3 Underwater Music Festival
United States

Singing in the shower is a popular pastime, but an entire music festival held underwater can be found off the Florida Keys. The event was established in the 1980s to raise awareness for preserving the Keys’ coral reefs.

Divers and snorkelers hit the water each July to watch musicians dressed as fish and mermaids “play” on mock nautical-themed instruments, such as the “fluke-a-lele” and “trom-bonefish.” Those in the water enjoy ocean-themed music streamed from the local radio station via underwater speakers. “Landlubbers” can still enjoy a range of festival activities on the shore.^[8]

2 Water Gun Festival
South Korea

There’s nothing like a good water fight to cool off on a hot summer day. A festival in the Sinchon district of Seoul, South Korea, has taken the fun to a whole new level. The festival originated as a bit of midsummer fun for the local college students to beat the heat and has developed into one of the most popular summer festivals in Seoul.

Festivalgoers, sometimes in fancy dress, battle it out amid the music and market stalls with water guns of all shapes and sizes. If you happen to wander into the water battle zone unarmed, you can purchase a weapon on-site and join in the fun.^[9] Included in the events on the day is a “water gun wedding,” a whole new take on the Western “shotgun” wedding.

1 Baby Jumping
Spain

There are some unusual baptism traditions around the world, but the baby jumping festival in Castrillo de Murcia, Spain, may be the most bizarre in the Western world. Since the 1600s, local villagers have brought their babies to be blessed during the Feast of Corpus Christi in June each year.

During the El Salto del Colacho (Devil’s Jump), men dressed as the Devil, wearing red and yellow suits, jump over babies laid on mattresses in the streets. The “Devil” cracks a whip and clacks castanets as he jumps to ward off evil spirits, before the babies are sprinkled with rose petals. Though it was originally only a local custom, people from around the region now bring their babies to be blessed in the somewhat bizarre ritual.^[10]

Lesley Connor is a retired Australian newspaper editor who provides articles for online publications and her own travel blog.

One of the best aspects of modern society and its extensive interconnectedness is that like-minded people can meet more easily than ever. Thanks to the internet, entire communities that might never have met previously have formed and evolved into organizations. There are conventions, festivals, and expos for almost everything you can think of.

For most of these festivals, their best feature is that anyone can attend. Sure, entry to a few of these festivals isn’t free, but they are nonetheless open and ready to broaden your worldview. You’ll be worldlier and wiser for attending some of these gatherings (though Burning Man has certainly killed its share of brain cells), and because of that, you should check them out.

Here are ten festivals you can attend to broaden your horizons.

Related: 10 Famous Festivals That Ended In Complete Disaster

10 Krampusnacht

The good news about Krampusnacht is that if the entire mythology is make-believe, you will leave your Krampusnacht experience with a better understanding of Germanic peoples and their culture. The bad news about Krampusnacht is that if the mythology is in any way real, you may not leave the experience at all. Instead, you might spend the rest of your life, however brief, being tortured by the meter-long tongue of a goat demon.

The demon’s name is Krampus, and he sneaks into every house on December 25th, punishing naughty children. Depending on the version, he may also enslave them, torture them, and eat them. Either way, Krampusnacht is truly absurd fun. Any of the many Krampusnacht festivals in central and northern Europe are a sight to see; entire cities come alive with parades, drinking, stories, and some of the most elaborate costumes you will ever see.

9 Just For Laughs

The Just For Laughs festival in Montreal, Canada, is one of the biggest comedy festivals in the world. Unlike so many other festivals that have reached that top tier of patronage, however, Just For Laughs can still feel intimate and special, like missing any one act can rob you of a beautiful, ephemeral moment and epic story down the road.

Thanks to Montreal’s cozy, multi-lingual, metropolitan feel, Just For Laughs has maintained an inclusive, diverse atmosphere, even as it has exploded in popularity. This led to many great moments over the years, as comedy legends have yielded their time to rising stand-ups, and small-town improv teams have found themselves in scenes with megastars.

8 Bristol Renaissance Faire

Though any Renaissance Faire will broaden your horizons, there are a few that stand out among their peers. The Bristol Renaissance Faire takes place yearly, just outside of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and one day there will make even the most hardened frat boy bros yell “Huzzah!” in sincere glee.

The atmosphere is uncommonly welcoming, and guests show up as knights, pirates, zombies, samurai, and even regular people. Within the fest’s 30-plus acres, you can chug mead, throw axes, cheer on a jouster, throw tomatoes at an insult comic (sorry: court jester), buy a one-of-a-kind gas-powered steampunk sword, and more.

7 Health and Mindfulness Retreats

You may hear the phrase “Mindfulness Retreat” and instantly think of rich, pretentious actors who pay irresponsible amounts of money to cleanse their toxins by bathing in yak dung or drinking only fermented eel saliva. Worse, you might think of the queen of that gullible cult: Gwyneth Paltrow and her, ahem…interesting…line of Goop products. Though those people certainly exist, and some places cater to them, there are also a great many resorts and retreats across the world that are financially feasible. They are only there to make you leave feeling healthy and happy, and sell absolutely no eel saliva.

Take the Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. An average weekend stay at the center consists of organic meals, meditation, yoga, scenic hikes, and lessons on feeling happy and healthy. That’s a far cry from the possible pretension and sure to broaden your horizons positively.

6 SantaCon

Okay, we need to put a large asterisk on this one. The first SantaCon took place in San Francisco in 1994, and since then, the tradition has spread to dozens of cities worldwide—with sometimes disastrous results. As John Oliver once notoriously pointed out, many SantaCons have evolved into violent, drunken bar crawls that inevitably end in arrests. The New York City SantaCon, in particular, is the worst of the worst.

Instead, experience the right SantaCon in the right city, and you’ll leave with a twinkle in your eye. The original festival location in downtown San Francisco is a much tamer, more joyous affair. Children walk the streets, meet movie-quality Santas, eat themed treats, and learn the mythology’s history from jolly, bearded Saints. The Portland SantaCon, as well, made a point to keep the festival near to its roots.

Also, it is worth pointing out: if you are someone that has never engaged in a loud, messy bar crawl, the New York City SantaCon may end up broadening your horizons.

5 Anthrocon

If there is an entry on this list you haven’t heard of, it’s Anthrocon. If you have heard of it, there’s at least a 50 percent chance you only heard of it in a punchline on some late-night comedy show. And it’s just for that reason that Anthrocon, the world’s largest convention for furries, may be the festival that broadens your horizons the most.

True, the majority of people may have no interest in dressing up as animals and acting like them. In fact, most people likely openly laugh at the Furry community for their position at the social fringe. But they are people, too, and many, if not most, aren’t there to engage in salacious acts of faux-bestiality. They’re there to share a common passion, to build a community, and to showcase some of the most dedicated cosplay there is. Given public (mis)perception of furries, Anthrocon is statistically almost guaranteed to broaden your horizons.

4 Burning Man

Burning Man is worth a trip. More than that, Burning Man is worth twenty trips. Though the festival has seen its fair share of out-of-control moments, it is precisely that unpredictability that makes the festival worth it.

Burning Man changes from year to year, from camp to camp, and from community to community. But the one constant is its passionate commitment to individuality and freedom of expression. After one day at Burning Man, you may find yourself with an unexpected tattoo of an ancient deity you’ve never heard of, a new group of friends who are both bikers and social activists, a newfound interest in polyamory, and quite possibly anything else you can, and can’t, imagine.

3 Montreux Jazz Festival

Music fans know the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, as one of the absolute peaks among the true music festivals. Unlike many of its more populated counterparts, like Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, Montreux is about enjoying the music and only the music. That’s not to say that the social music festivals aren’t worth your time, but if you’re a true music lover and aficionado, you likely already know that Montreux is a must.

Though the festival began as a pure Jazz affair, it quickly evolved into a larger, more encompassing music fest. These days, you can hear almost any genre of music on its various intimate stages.

If you’re looking for proof of Montreux’s esteem, look no further than the sheer volume of live albums recorded at its venues. Everyone from Alanis Morissette to ZZ Top has recorded a live album or two at the fest, thanks in part to the superb sound quality at its venues and the exceptional fervor of its live audiences.

2 Nerd Conventions (Just Not the Big One)

It’s a tough call whether this entry or SantaCon needs a bigger asterisk. All in all, as millions worldwide can attest, one of the best experiences you can have is seeking out a few thousand people as passionate about your interests as you are and gathering to heighten each other’s mania. Nerd conventions, such as comic, board games, cosplay, anime, and video game conventions, are a truly inspiring place to meet fellow fans, craftspeople, and artists—you just have to avoid the big ones.

The biggest of them all, the official Comic-Cons like those in San Diego (the original) and New York City, have evolved over the years into a mix of Hollywood trailer reveals and overpriced merchandise that you could find in major chain stores. But the smaller cons, which are too many to name but take place all year round in thousands of cities and towns, offer dizzying arrays of panels, meet-and-greets, homemade crafts, emerging artists, live bands you’ve never heard of, inventive costumes, and more.

1 The Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe may just be supreme among all festivals, across all genres. As bold a statement as that is, the Fringe has the credentials to back it up.

The Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world, and as you would expect, there is simply more to experience there in one month than you could take in over a decade. The Fringe hosts a blend of the world’s most popular comedians, musicians, actors, poets, and visual artists, as well as a who’s who of up-and-coming talent.

Like Just For Laughs, The Fringe’s host city Edinburgh plays a major role in keeping the festival’s atmosphere non-commercial. You will need tickets and be offered merch, but you’ll also see the world’s best performers at the top of their game. In fact, the wildly funny and clever comedy series “Fleabag” began as a one-woman show on one of the Fringe’s many stages.

Death is a huge part of many cultures, with the beliefs surrounding what happens after we pass on causing wars, discussions, and speculation for millennia. Of course, one of the most famous festivals that honors the dead is Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, but there are plenty of other interesting death-related festivals celebrated all around the world.

While some cultures prefer the more somber affairs we associate with Western funerals, many opt for a more upbeat and celebratory atmosphere. This is often the case when the belief system supposes that there’s an afterlife of some kind, whether that’s a veil from which they watch over the living, a period of reincarnation, or a plain where they’re reunited with other ancestors or loved ones that have already passed on.

The result is often a vibrant and exciting festival that involves a lot of traditions dedicated to showing love, reverence, and respect. If you’re in any of the following areas during their specific death-related festival, you’re in for a slightly morbid treat.

So, where are some of the most interesting death-related festivals around the world? Let’s find out!

10 Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme, Las Nieves, Spain

Also known as the Festival of Near Death Experiences, the Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme is celebrated in the small town of Las Nieves in Spain. Unlike a lot of morose European festivals, this event is actually held in the peak of summer—July 29th every year!

Like many Spanish fiestas, the celebration of Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme is dominated by a procession led by an effigy of Santa Marta or Lazarus’s sister, Martha. Lazarus, of course, is most famous for returning from the dead. The crowds give thanks to Santa Marta for escaping a close encounter with death in the previous year.

How do they do this? By dressing in funeral attire and carrying a coffin with their own real-life “escapee” in it. If you’ve cheated death in the last year, you too can lay in an open casket and be carried through the streets of Las Nieves by your friends and family.

It might sound like a morbid affair, but there is a ton of gypsy dancing and music, as well as plenty of local and fresh octopus to be eaten. Although it’s a festival dedicated to a saint, in true Spanish fashion, it’s also a party.^[1]

9 Obon, Japan

For our next death-related festival, we’re heading east to Japan. Family and ancestral history play a huge role in the culture in Japan, so it’s no wonder that there is a festival dedicated to the period where the spirits of ancestors are believed to travel back to the land of the living. This is a similar theme around much of the world, but it’s celebrated in Japan as Obon, or sometimes shortened to just Bon.

Celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar year, it often results in Obon occurring in mid-August. During this time, lanterns are lit to help guide the spirits home, as well as food being offered at home altars. Like many other remembrance events, the graves of the departed are also visited more during Obon.

Once Obon draws to a close, the lanterns are launched onto the water to help guide the spirits of their loved ones back to their resting place. The sight of the lanterns gliding out across the water is like something out of a movie.^[2]

8 Samhain, Celtic Origins—UK

Okay, to be clear, Samhain and Halloween are not the same, despite sharing a celebration date of October 31st. Samhain comes from the pagan and Celtic traditions, popular in the UK before Christianity took hold. Still celebrated in many parts of the UK, particularly in Scotland, Samhain celebrates the welcoming of the harvest and the darker nights that are yet to come.

The traditions practiced for Samhain have altered drastically over the years, with ancient Samhain celebrating the end of the harvest with a burning wheel, said to represent the sun, before sacrificing cattle and taking a piece of the fire back to your family hearth. In the Middle Ages, this turned into a more modern bonfire to protect from witches, with people carving turnips, a precursor to the modern jack-o’-lantern.

Samhain is also where the veil between the dead and the living is thought to be at its thinnest, so people went door to door, singing to the dead. They were then rewarded with cake, making this the base for the trick-or-treat concept.

Despite the similarities between Samhain and Halloween, Samhain is one of four fire festivals in pagan tradition. It has a deep connection to the earth and the seasons, which tends to make it appear aligned with Wiccan traditions more than your Christian All Hallows’ Eve.^[3]

7 Pchum Ben, Cambodia

As far as death-related festivals go, Pchum Ben in Cambodia is one of the longest, lasting a total of 15 days. It’s a time to gather and respect those who’ve passed on. Each day, no matter how busy you are, devotees should visit their local pagoda with an offering and some food.

The final day is normally on the 28th of September. It’s at this time that everyone gathers together to remember and feel sorry for those who they’ve lost. Aside from Buddhist New Year, it’s the most important date in the Cambodian calendar.^[4]

6 Radonitsa, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus

Celebrated on the second Tuesday after Orthodox Easter, Radonitsa is a popular festival of remembrance and celebration of death all around Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. It’s said to be a day of rejoicing and celebrating the lives that have passed rather than being somber about it.

Relatives visit the graves of the dead and feast with them or leave Easter eggs and sweets as offerings. Sometimes they’ll light a candle instead or have a full traditional meal. It varies from town to town, but it’s never a sad occasion.^[5]

5 The Festival of the Hungry Ghost, China

Much like Obon in Japan, the Hungry Ghost Festival occurs on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month. Sharing a meal with loved ones is a powerful thing, and hospitality is something that is revered and celebrated in a lot of cultures, including across China.

The Hungry Ghost Festival is all about food, hospitality, and avoiding the wrath of a hungry ghost! Ceremonies include burning incense, bringing ancestral tablets to the table, and cooking three full meals throughout the day. Once the sun goes down, a feast is laid on the table for the ancestral ghosts among the incense, tablets, and paintings. Afterward, the living may feast separately, leaving a place setting for a lost loved one.^[6]

4 Tiwah, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Normally, one burial service is enough, but for the Dayak Ngaju people of Central Kalimantan in Indonesia, just one burial could mean disaster for the crops and cause famine or even plague. That’s why they have a second funeral tradition called tiwah.

This morbid festival involves exhuming the corpse a few months or even a couple of years after the initial burial. Then the family takes the bones and puts them in a ceremonial chest or ossuary. The Dayak Ngaju people believe that this process is them guiding their loved ones to the spirit world. Without doing so could cause trouble for the living.^[7]

3 Gai Jatra, Nepal

Celebrated across the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. Gai Jatra is a Hindu festival otherwise known as the festival of the cows. This is because, in Hinduism, the cow is the Goddess of Wealth and is a sacred animal.

Each year in July or August, the families send out their children dressed up as cows to join a parade of remembrance. The parade is an upbeat affair, full of color, music, and dancing. It’s a beautiful sight to behold and one that’s definitely a celebration of life rather than a meditation on death.^[8]

2 Totensonntag, Germany

Heading back to Europe, Totensonntag, held in Germany and Switzerland on the last Sunday before Advent (often the last Sunday of November), is a more somber death-related festival.

In stark contrast to the parades of Dia de los Muertos, Totensonntag is considered a silent day, where there are noise level provisions in place across the country so that people can take time to remember those who they’ve lost. Often, people will visit the graves of not only loved ones but also those of popular German or Lutheran figures and important churches.^[9]

1 Thursday of the Dead, Eastern Mediterranean & Middle East

Celebrated across religions in the former Levant region, now recognized as the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, Thursday of the Dead is observed by Muslims and Christians alike in this area.

Thought to be the day that the Last Supper occurred, Thursday of the Dead is celebrated in the morning, unlike the similar Maundy Thursday holiday. It’s a time to remember those who have been lost but also to help those in need. It’s common for bread and sweets to be given out to children who are in need, keeping the circle of life going. As such, it is now also called the Day of Sweetness.^[10]

Every month of every year, all across the globe, cities and towns and even tiny villages are celebrating one festival or another for countless reasons. Some are religious, some are to celebrate the harvest, the passing of seasons, local heroes, historic events, you name it. You can’t keep a good festival down. But for all the easy to understand festivals that offer up good times and good food for those in attendance, there are a handful of festivals that seem to exist mostly to sow discord, havoc and danger for anyone who gets too close.

10. Epiphany in Vale de Salgueiro 

Christians celebrate a feast day called the Epiphany. In the US, this is what kicks off Carnival in New Orleans, and elsewhere things like King Cakes and fruit cakes are commonplace. In the UK, Twelfth Night is the night before and there is traditionally a yule log, wassailing and, once again, fruit cake. In the town of Vale de Salgueiro in Portugal, the celebration includes a weird twist.

If you head to this very small village, with its population of about 200, you’ll discover locals encouraging their children to smoke cigarettes on this day. And by children we mean as young as five years old. Why would people celebrate the Epiphany by making kids smoke? The locals say it’s a centuries old tradition but they also have no further explanation. It’s entirely unclear what it’s supposed to represent or symbolize, especially since traditionally the Epiphany celebrates the Magi visiting Christ as a baby and the revelation that he was God incarnate. Not much of that deals with Marlboros. 

Kids in the village smoke for two days and parents defend the practice since it’s just two days and the kids are exhaling quickly. At least one resident, who is 101, claimed they were doing it when she was a kid, so they’re really committed to it, even if no one knows why. 

9. Mexico’s Festival of Exploding Hammers

You can’t argue that people don’t like explosions, it’s what drives Fourth of July celebrations as well as a large portion of Hollywood action movies. The Mexican town of San Juan de la Vega takes the love of an exploding festival to new heights with sledgehammers laced with explosives that are busted out around Fat Tuesday every year.

As the story goes, the founder of the town was a sort of Robin Hood figure. He got into a skirmish with some local landowners that resulted in him stealing gold back from them. Or maybe they were bandits. Whatever the case, locals celebrated his victory over whoever the thieves were by making exploding hammers, because why not?

In the past, the hammers were strapped with homemade explosives, like fireworks, and then the hammers and slammed against I-beams or sheet metal. Past hammers, unable to handle the force, would commonly explode as well and send metal flying. Modern hammers are reinforced with rebar to handle the explosions but that doesn’t stop chunks of metal from flying free and embedding into spectators and hammer wielders. In 2008, 50 bystanders were injured by shrapnel but the celebrations have been going on for about 400 years so it’s unlikely a few explosion scars are going to stop anyone. 

8. Spain’s Las Luminarias 

The Spanish festival called Las Luminarias is meant to be in honor of St. Anthony the Abbot, patron saint of domestic animals. And what better way to honor a domestic animal lover than by making horses run through fire? According to tradition, which dates back centuries, by running horses through raging bonfires the animals are being purified by the fire. 

Riders are said to take precautions such as cutting the horses’ hair so they can’t get burned, but animal rights groups are still not big fans of the tradition. All told, around 100 horses will undergo the ritual over the course of the festival, which is later followed by drinking and dancing as befits any good, fire-filled festival. 

Despite assurances that the horses don’t get burned, others have pointed out that, because they are animals, they’re not likely to understand what’s going on and forcing animals that traditionally run to escape danger to leap through fire is pretty stressful for them. 

7. The Turkey Trot Festival in Arkansas 

The Turkey Trot Festival sounds about as innocent as a festival can get, doesn’t it? Trotting turkeys makes you think of chubby birds strutting down a street without a care in the world. That’s not technically the case with this real life Arkansas festival, or at least it wasn’t until a few years back when they decided to make it less terrifying. 

For 70 years, the small town of Yellville, Arkansas had been having this festival around Thanksgiving that celebrates all things turkey. They even have a Miss Drumsticks to help celebrate. But for most of those 70 years, literally up to 2017, part of the tradition also included loading airplanes with live turkeys and then throwing the birds, which you’ll remember can’t fly, out of the moving planes. Many died on impact while others survived for a short time with broken bones.

There was no gimmick or trick involved in what was happening, they were just hurling birds to their death. It was animal cruelty despite not tecnically being a violation of FAA regulations. It wasn’t until the media broke the story open after that 2017 year that it finally came to an end as a result of the bad press and not any particular compassion for turkey mayhem.

6. Japanese Wasp Festival

Amidst the chaotic news of the early 2020s was the tale of giant Asian hornets making their way to North America. The internet has always enjoyed these creatures as a giant, stinging insect is a nice sort of sci fi monster come to life, plus videos of them raiding bee’s nests are pretty interesting. 

In Japan, where the hornets come from, there are also wasps that gain some attention around Nagano and Gifu in a festival called Hebo Matsuri. In the village of Kushihara, people come to eat wasp-based snacks made from wasp larvae and compete in wasp nest contests to see whose is the heaviest. If you have the money, you can even eat the larvae alive right from the nest. 

Attendees can expect to get stung a couple of times while they’re there because, unsurprisingly, wasps don’t want you raiding their nests. You can eat the giant hornets there as well, though live ones are not the sort of things you want to see since their sting is very painful and, in some cases, even deadly. 

5. The Naked Man Festival

Not every festival involves 9,000 nearly naked men, but Konomiya Hadaka Matsuri does. The 1,250-year-old tradition requires men in loin-cloths to pray for luck. So far so slightly odd, but not dangerous. Things get more violent later when they men compete to gain good luck talismans, of which there are two, through pretty much any means necessary. The scene is described as a “mosh pit” and involves jumping, tripping, climbing and so on to try to reach them as they dangle from above.

One man at the festival will be deemed the Lucky Man or Man of God. Touching him is meant to protect you from disease and bad luck. But when 9,000 men, being sprayed with cold water, all scramble to do it at the same time the scene can get chaotic. The man is completely shaven beforehand and then chased totally naked, as people pass their bad luck to him. Then he’s run out of town. Tourists are allowed to come and participate and you can neither have tattoos nor be drunk, though some locations seem to encourage drinking sake so you may want to check local rules if you want to join in. 

4. Switzerland’s Spring Festival

Festivals that predict the weather are not necessarily a unique idea, in the US and Canada a groundhog is used to determine when winter will end every year. In Switzerland they have a similar tradition at a festival called Sechseläuten. The festival announces the beginning of Spring and translates to “the six-o’clock ringing of the bells” to commemorate the extra hour of daylight that comes as winter gives way to spring. 

At some point, the festival came to include something called Böögg, which is a giant 11-foot tall snowman that the locals light on fire. The snowman is atop a bonfire and his head is jammed full of 140 sticks of dynamite, because how else do you celebrate the passing of winter into spring? 

Once the bonfire is lit, people place bets on how long until the fire gets high enough to make Böögg’s head explode. The sooner it happens, the sooner it will become Spring, is the thinking. If it takes a long time, then summer may be cold and beset with snowfall.

3. Takanakuy

There’s an episode of Seinfeld in which we learn George’s father invented his own Christmas-adjacent holiday called Festivus that involves feats of strengths and the airing of grievances. The people of the Peruvian Andes did Mr. Costanza one better with a Christmas day festival called Takanakuy.

Men and women participate in the festival, some wear costumes and masks but some don’t, and the gist of it is all pretty simple – if someone wronged you during the year you can settle the score here by beating the crap out of each other.

The goal of the battle is to start the new year fresh and put old grievances to rest. You start the fight with a hug and you end it with one. But in the middle you genuinely pound your opponent into the dirt. Thousands of people attend, cheering the combatants who can be children all they way through grandparents on as they punch their way to a happy new year. 

2. Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival

Despite its name, the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival in Taiwan has nothing to do with bees. The name is a metaphor for the chaos and, arguably, the intense and painful danger you’re flirting with by being here.  

A religious festival, its main claim to fame is the fact that millions of fireworks are set off, like a swarm of bees, over the course of the events. But they aren’t shot at the sky, they’re shot at you and everyone else in attendance.

Experiencing the chaos is supposed to bring good fortune for the new year and cleans any bad influences away. All you need to do is wear a helmet and some protective clothing to try to avoid the inevitable burns as millions of little firecrackers explode around you and rain sparks everywhere. Bruises from spent cardboard tubes are not unheard of along with the threat of igniting or going deaf and/or blind from explosions near your ears and eyes. 

1. Onbashira

Back to Japan once more for a log riding festival that has claimed more than one life in the past. Known as Onbashira, the concept is simple if baffling and terrifying. Participants have to ride a giant 10-ton log, essentially a felled tree, down the side of a mountain. 

The festival is actually a religious one and the massive logs are destined to be pillars outside of a Shinto shrine. People have been crushed under the logs, they have drowned under them as they were transported through water, and when they are erected, some people have fallen from the tops. The most recent death was in 2016. The deaths don’t put a damper on the festival however, as dying this way is considered to be honorable.