By Madhavi Pothukuchi
30 September, 2022
Termed El Colacho (the devil) in Spanish, this is a festival that sees men dress up as the devil and jump over babies born that year to purify them of future sins and evil spirits.
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This annual Chinese festival started as a ritual for fishing communities, but now, the festival is an exquisite cultural spectacle loaded with parades and activities. Bun towers are erected for participants who climb and collect as many buns as possible to score points.
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Held annually in Lopburi, this festival lays out an enormous spread of fresh fruits and vegetables for the local monkeys to feast on.
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The Carnival of Ivrea is the biggest food fight in Italy. It replicates the civil war of Ivrea between the tyrant who ruled it in the 13th century, with common people using oranges symbolically as weapons.
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This annual Japanese festival has two sumo wrestlers enter the ring, each holding babies in their arms. The objective is to them cry, for they believe that a crying baby makes good health. The first baby to cry wins the match.
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The Flour Fight Festival (El Enfarinats "the floured ones") began 200 years ago and is still celebrated in the town of Ibi, Spain. Every year on 28 December, the townspeople stage a political coup and instate strange laws for the town and those who break them get hit with flour and eggs as punishment.
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Chaharshanbe Suri (Festival of Fire) is celebrated on the last Wednesday of the year. It includes many unusual rituals like jumping over bonfires to get rid of negative energy, banging spoons, and smashing pots.
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This firework-filled festival is a famously dangerous annual custom, where people in Yanshuei gather to celebrate the end of the cholera epidemic in the 1800s. Hundreds of bottle rockets are arranged in a beehive design and launched t the crowd. If someone gets hit, it is even considered good luck!
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