20 Genuinely Strange Holidays and Festivals From Around the World
Made-up novelty days are fun, but some countries take "strange holiday" to a whole different level — with entire towns built around throwing tomatoes, wrestling in mud, or carrying their wives through an obstacle course. These aren't jokes on a calendar; people actually show up for them, every year. Here are 20 of the strangest, organized by season.
Winter
- Up Helly Aa — last Tuesday of January, Shetland, Scotland. A torch-lit procession of a thousand "guizers" ends with the burning of a full-size Viking longship. Started in the 1880s as a rowdier alternative to older midwinter fire festivals.
- Thaipusam — January or February, Malaysia and Tamil communities worldwide. Devotees carry ornate frameworks called kavadi, some pierced through skin and cheeks, in a procession of devotion to the Hindu god Murugan. Intense to watch, deeply meaningful to those taking part.
- Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Man Festival) — early February, Saidaiji, Japan. Thousands of men in loincloths pack into a freezing temple courtyard, fighting to touch a pair of lucky sacred sticks thrown into the crowd. Over 500 years old.
- Camel Wrestling Festival — January, Selçuk, Turkey. Decorated camels, muzzled for safety, lean into each other while brass bands play and crowds cheer. A tradition going back centuries along the old Silk Road.
Spring
- Battle of the Oranges — during Carnival, Ivrea, Italy. Teams on foot pelt teams on horse-drawn carts with actual oranges, re-enacting a medieval uprising against a tyrant. Around 500 tons of oranges get thrown each year.
- Nyepi (Day of Silence) — March, Bali, Indonesia. The Balinese New Year is marked by total silence: no lights, no travel, no work, even the airport shuts down for 24 hours, so evil spirits believe the island is deserted.
- Kanamara Matsuri — first Sunday of April, Kawasaki, Japan. A cheerful, brightly-colored fertility festival with a centuries-old backstory, now also a fundraiser for HIV research and awareness.
- Cheese Rolling — late May, Cooper's Hill, England. Competitors chase a 9-pound wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill. Whoever crosses the finish line first keeps the cheese. Injuries are common; nobody has ever suggested stopping.
- El Colacho (Baby Jumping Festival) — Corpus Christi, Castrillo de Murcia, Spain. Men dressed as the devil leap over rows of babies born that year, a 17th-century tradition believed to cleanse the infants of original sin.
Summer
- La Tomatina — last Wednesday of August, Buñol, Spain. An hour of pure tomato warfare in the streets, using over 100 tons of overripe tomatoes. Started in 1945 as a spontaneous food fight and never stopped.
- Songkran — April 13–15, Thailand. The Thai New Year turns entire cities into water fights, originally a gentle water-blessing ritual that scaled up into the world's largest water fight.
- Wife-Carrying World Championship — July, Sonkajärvi, Finland. Competitors race an obstacle course carrying their partner in any position they like. The prize: the wife's weight in beer.
- Boryeong Mud Festival — mid-July, South Korea. A beach town built an entire summer festival around mineral-rich mud from its nearby flats — mud slides, mud wrestling, mud everything.
- World Bog Snorkelling Championships — late August, Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales. Competitors snorkel two lengths of a peat bog trench wearing flippers, no conventional swimming strokes allowed. Exactly as odd as it sounds.
- Haro Wine Festival (Batalla del Vino) — June 29, Haro, Spain. Thousands of people in white clothing drench each other in red wine at dawn, then hike to a hillside for the actual party. Bring a change of clothes.
- Air Guitar World Championships — August, Oulu, Finland. Founded, according to organizers, to promote world peace one imaginary guitar solo at a time. Judged with total seriousness.
Autumn
- Monkey Buffet Festival — last Sunday of November, Lopburi, Thailand. A town famous for its wild monkey population lays out an enormous buffet of fruit and vegetables for its resident troops, as thanks for the tourism they bring.
- World Toe Wrestling Championship — June, Wetton, England. Two competitors lock bare feet on a raised "toedium" and try to pin each other's foot down. Started in a pub in the 1970s, still going.
Winter, again
- Krampusnacht — December 5, Alpine Europe. The night before Saint Nicholas's feast day, people dress as Krampus — a horned, chain-rattling counterpart to Santa — and roam the streets to scare children who've misbehaved.
- Yi Peng and Loi Krathong — November, Thailand. Thousands of glowing paper lanterns are released into the sky at once over Chiang Mai, one of the most photographed sights in Southeast Asia, marking the end of the rainy season.
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The world's calendar is stranger than you think
Fun Calendar surfaces a new fun, weird, or wonderful holiday every single day — swipe through the deck and see what's being celebrated somewhere today.
What makes a holiday "strange" instead of just silly
Most of the internet's "weird holiday" lists are made-up novelty days — real, but invented recently by a blogger, a brand, or a bored office somewhere. The festivals on this list are different: they're rooted in actual local history, religion, or civic pride, and entire towns organize their year around them. That's what makes them worth knowing about — they're not jokes, they're just a different definition of a good time.
Looking for the lighter, more novelty side of the calendar instead? Start with 25 Weird and Wonderful Holidays You Didn't Know Existed.