La Tomatina
La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the town of Bunol near to Valencia in Spain. Thousands upon thousands of people make their way from all corners of the world to fight in this 'World's Biggest Food Fight' where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
Cheese Rolling Festival
The Cheese Rolling Festival is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper's Hill, near Gloucester in England. It is traditionally by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth, but now people from all over the world take part. The Guardian called it a "world-famous event", and indeed, in 2013, a 27-year-old American and a 39-year-old Japanese each won one of the four races. The event takes its name from the hill on which it occurs.
Bonfires of Saint John
The Bonfires of Saint John are a popular festival celebrated around Saint John's day's eve (23 June) throughout many cities and towns in Spain; the larger one takes place in Alicante, where it is considered the most important festival in the city. The bonfires are particularly popular in Galicia and many Catalan-speaking areas like Catalonia and the Valencian Community, and for this reason some Catalan nationalists regard 24 June as the Catalan nation day. For this festival, people gather together and create large bonfires from any kind of wood, such as old furniture, and share hot chocolate while teens and children jump over the fires.
Goat Tossing Festival
Celebrated on the fourth Sunday of January, Goat throwing was a festival in Manganeses de la Polvorosa, province of Zamora, Spain, where a group of young men threw a live goat from the top of a church. A crowd below would then catch the falling goat with a canvas sheet. Animal rights groups demanded the end of this festival several times, until the practice was banned in 2002, but A toy plush goat was thrown in the 2014 celebration.
Hadaka Matsuri
A Hadaka Matsuri is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth, sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked. Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is the Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri held at Saidaiji Temple in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival in hopes of gaining luck for the entire year.
El Colacho
Baby jumping is a traditional Spanish holiday dating back to 1620 that takes place annually 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 (known as the Colacho) jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street.
Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme
Every year, on July 29, the little village of As Nieves, in the province of Pontevedra, celebrates those people that almost passed on with a procession that winds through the town. Unlike typical processions, the pasos we know from Holy Week are not used here. This procession uses coffins instead and these coffins aren't empty! Inside, carried above the crowd, are people who have had a near death experience the previous year and the coffin is used as a symbol of their truncated journey towards the light.
Kanamara Matsuri
Every year in spring, the festival of Kanamara Matsuri (The Steel Phallus) is held in Kawasaki, Japan. It is a Shinto fertility festival and, as you would expect, it involves a rather large penis statue. During the festival, people can buy candies, vegetables, and gifts in the shape of a phallus. The festival was very popular amongst prostitutes who thought that participation would help to prevent them getting sexually transmitted diseases.
Goose Clubbing Festival
Until recently, an annual festival was held in Germany in which a goose was tied by its feet to a post and then clubbed by the local men until its head came off. As a result of complaints from animal rights activists, the festival-goers now hit a goose which has previously been killed. A very similar event occurs in Spain (surprise, surprise) every year in which a man hangs from the goose until the head comes off. Again the goose is killed prior to the event which dates back 350 years. The Spanish festival is called Antzar Eguna.
Thaipusam
Thaipusam is a Hindu festival (celebrated mostly by Tamils) held in January/February each year to celebrate the birth of Murugan (the son of gods Shiva and Parvati). The participants shave their heads and perform a pilgrimage, at the end of which they shove very sharp skewers through their tongues or cheeks. Some of the practitioners put hooks into their back and pull heavy objects like tractors. The aim is to cause as much pain as possible the more you endure, the more “blessings†you receive from the gods. The festival is popular in India, but the largest celebrations take place in Singapore and Malaysia, where it is a public holiday.