Night of the Radishes – Oaxaca, Mexico

The curiously-titled Night of the Radishes, which takes place the day before Christmas Eve, may be a great way to keep yourself entertained later in the year. Oaxaca is home to ancient Zapotec and Mixtec ruins and promises a true local experience away from the well-trodden tourist trail. Locals carve thousands of dolls from radishes to depict anything from Jesus to aliens – and these sculptures are exhibited around the city. During the festival, you can also get your teeth around a traditional buñuelo – essentially a beautiful fried pastry – and make a wish by throwing your bowl into the air afterwards, enjoying processions, fireworks and floats as you unwind before Christmas.

Read more: Wikipedia

Songkran Festival – Thailand

Skip the shower post-Mudfest because you’re bound to clean off during Songkran Festival. Over the years, this traditional Thai New Year celebration has transformed from ceremonial sprinklings into the world’s largest water fight. Anyone brave enough to venture intro the streets during this H2O holiday is a fair target for garden hose drenchings and water balloon barrages. Definitely bring a towel.

Read more: Wikipedia.org

World Pea shooting Championship

The World Pea Shooting Championship has been held annually since 1971 in the village of Witcham near Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. It was conceived as a fund-raising idea for the Village Hall by the headmaster of the village school, John I. Tyson (1925–2002). In 2003 the Parish Council funded the purchase of the John Tyson Shield on which the champion’s name is recorded each year.

The competition tends to be dominated by local entrants, though a small number travel from around the world, notably the USA, and American personnel from the nearby US airbases of RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath have competed. The day is combined with village fete featuring games, stalls etc.

Read more: oddstuffmagazine.com

Roadkill Cook-off

The West Virginia RoadKill Cook-off is one of the region’s most fun and exciting annual events. In years past, the Food Network, the Travel Channel and the Discovery Channel have all covered this wild and wacky festival! If you’ve ever wanted to taste exotic dishes like squirrel gravy over biscuits, teriyaki-marinated bear or deer sausage, this is the place to be!

Last years dishes included Dixie Deer Chili to Route 219 Turtle Soup, it’s a centerline-smorgasbord of culinary creations. Pocahontas County is a favored destination for travelers seeking unsurpassed scenic beauty in a predominately rural and tranquil setting.
...

Read more: oddstuffmagazine.com

Gilroy Garlic Festival

The festival was founded in 1979 by Dr. Rudy Melone, Don Christopher, and Val Filice, and has been a fundraiser for local charities, raising a total of about seven and a half million dollars for assorted causes. Individual groups and charities also run booths at the festival, raising additional funds for their causes. The Gilroy Garlic Festival Association is a non-profit organization intended to support non-profit groups and projects in Gilroy.

Read more:oddstuffmagazine.com

Calaveras county fair and frog jump jubilee

This is definitely the world’s biggest frog jumping contest. The fair was held for the first time in 1893, but the frog competitions started in 1928. The frog trainers have to participate on a number of competitions during the whole year in order to gain an invitation for this event. In three days in May every year thousands of frogs show their skills. The world record was set in 1986 by Rosie the Ribiter with a jump of 21 feet and 5.75 inches.

Read more: www.frogtown.org

Pushkar camel fair

Pushkar is a little desert town in the state of Rajasthan, India, which host over 50,000 camels every November, depending on the moon cycle. Camel owners from the whole country come to the fair to do some weird things with their camels. The animals are shaved, dressed up, entered into beauty contests, paraded, raced, and finally, traded. The amazing numbers of 200,000 people who appear on the festival every year make it worth visiting.

Read more: www.pushkarcamelfair.com

World Swamp Soccer Cup

"Pölhövaara is a swampy area near the town of Hyrynsalmi, some 650 kilometers northeast of Helsinki. Forests and swamps stretch across the countryside as far as the eye can see.
Once a year, this unassuming area becomes home to a very unusual sports event: swamp soccer. It all started 10 years ago with a handful of Finnish teams. Since then, the event has grown into a major spectacle, attracting some 260 men's, women's and mixed teams from various countries.
The soccer fields, marked with yellow plastic bands, actually have more similarities to pig pens than they do to pitches. The game lasts for two periods of 25 minutes each. On this swampy ground, it involves wading, crawling or sculling in dark brown mud. A bright red t-shirt soon turns into a dirty rag after kickoff, and many a face and hair is smeared with dirt."

Read more: www.dw.de

Snowshoe Football World Championship

"Tired of waiting for the spring and the start of the football season? Well, why not try another crazy Finnish sport as a substitute: Snowshoe Football. The rules are pretty much the same as in regular football, just with less players, a pair of showshoes on your feet and played out in the freezing cold."

Read more: Snowshoe Football World Championship

Ant-Nest Sitting Competition

"Let's sit on an ant nest! Well, if you're not quite up for that, just watch and enjoy the contestants suffer while they place their buttocks on an ant hill for as long as possible... "

Read more: goscandinavia.about.com

Mosquito Swatting Championships

"It’s hard to believe that a country as cold as Finland is during the winter could have mosquitoes in the summer but up here in the north they are quite prevalent. They are also quite annoying. I say this sitting here scratching several bites I got last night whilst sleeping.
There is a local ‘sport’ the people around here tell me about which involves standing naked in the forest with a slice of buttered bread and trying to catch as many mosquitoes as you can,but thankfully that is not what’s involved in the world championships. Although I don’t think I’d have been too surprised if it were.

The mosquito swatting championships are very simple. Each contestant gets five minutes to swat as many mosquitoes as they can."

Read more: Weird finnish world championships

Air Guitar World Championship

"A weird event for music lovers: The Air Guitar World Championship in Oulu, Finland. Ever played the air guitar? It's not easy to get in as a contestant, but it's a lot of fun to watch. Part of the Oulu Music Video Festival in late summer. You can also watch a 2006 documentary about this event, called Air Guitar Nation."

Read more: www.airguitarworldchampionships.com

Cell Phone Throwing in Finland

"Have you ever wanted to throw your cell phone? Throw it far, or throw it away? Then this is certainly the sport for you. Cell Phone Throwing got its start in 2000 in Finland (and is also one of the weirdest events in Finland) and has reached all the way into the United States since then.
When throwing your cell phone in a Finnish contest, you are judged by distance and sometimes technique. Depending on the contest rules, you'll either throw the cell phone backwards over your shoulder and count the distance of the best of three attempts. Alternatively, and even more fun, you can do a freestyle throw for creativity points."

Read more: goscandinavia.about.com

Wife Carrying World Championships

Each summer, this weird event in Sonkajärvi, Finland, becomes more and more popular. The wife-carrying contest has been at a world championship level for over 13 years now.

Read more: Wikipedia

Ivrea Carnival and Orange Battle

"The first thing you'll see is a maelstrom of red hats. Violetta and the crowd wear long, bright red, Phrygian hats symbolizing freedom. They come from far away. They're called berretti di Frigia or berretti frigi, from the ancient area of Phrygia, in what is now Turkish Anatolia. They used to be worn by the worshippers of the sun. They were then worn, in ancient Rome, by emancipated slaves and finally became one of the symbols of the French Revolution: the red bonnet meant Liberté. When you walk around with a red hat in Ivrea, people say you're wearing the berretto frigio and therefore you must be free to pass unharmed. The red hat means you won't be throwing oranges and therefore no one will throw oranges at you. If you're near the battle areas (even if you're behind the protective nets) you'll still get orange shrapnel, but no direct hits."

Read more: goitaly.about.com

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."

From: listverse.com

Kanamara Matsuri - The Steel Phallus

"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."

Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme

"Every year in Las Nieves, Spain, people who have suffered a near death experience in the previous year get together to attend Mass in celebration of Saint Marta de Ribarteme, the Patron Saint of resurrection. But here is the twist: they turn up at Mass carrying a coffin, or being carried in a coffin. After Mass, the coffins all proceed to the top of a nearby hill with a statue of the saint. Despite the somberness of the event, people light fireworks and shopkeepers fill the streets to sell religious objects."

Read more: www.odditycentral.com

Goat Tossing Festival

"The Spanish certainly like their odd festivals. Every year on the fourth Sunday in January, the locals of a small town named Manganeses de la Polvorosa gather together for the goat tossing festival, in honor of St Vincent de Paul, their patron saint. The festival has been around for so long that no one knows when it started. It involves a young man who finds a goat in the village, ties it up, and takes it to the top of the local Church belfry. He then tosses the goat over the side and it falls 50 feet where it is (hopefully) caught by villagers holding up a sheet of tarpaulin. The village officials banned the event but it continues regardless. Various animal rights agencies have complained about it – though their complaints have also been ignored."

Read more: Wikipedia

World Beard and Mustache Championships

In 2009, the American Festivals Project headed to the World Beard and Mustache Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Every other year, the weeklong event draws young and old hirsute competitors from around the world, vying for awards in arenas such as Sideburns/Muttonchops, Full Natural Beard, and Dalí Mustache. The contest began in Germany two decades ago and has since been held in the U.S. and countries across Europe. The current champions: Americans, with 12 medals and a best in show win in Anchorage.

Read more about the World Beard and Mustache Championships on the American Festivals Project blog.