Let the monkeys rejoice!
If you visit Lopburi in Thailand on November 25, chances are that a monkey might smirk at you if you offer just a banana or peanuts! They have their own buffet course during the Monkey Buffet Festival, with several kilos of choice fruits and vegetables to feast upon. Imagine the sight – 3000 monkeys helping themselves to food near the temples in Lopburi, Bangkok. Visitors admire the sight with one hand on their pockets and another holding their bags safe after all it is monkey territory! The idea behind this festival is that the monkeys bring in good luck and also tourists.
Dive fearlessly for a good crop
What would you do to ensure a good crop if you happened to have a yam field? Pray? Do somersaults? Stand on your head? In Vanuatu, the men are much braver. They dive down from a wooden tower with only two vines tied to their ankles to save them from a nasty fall. Not surprisingly, accidents are common because vines are after all vines, and they tend to break. While the men “pray” for their crops, their families probably pray for their safety.
Crying is winning
Know a cry baby? Hey, the sumos in Japan might be interested in having them as partners. The Konaki Sumo Festival is unique among festivals for hailing cry babies. It involves two sumos holding a baby each facing each other, waiting for the first baby to cry! The first to set the waterworks on is the winner. And the priest, who is also the referee, helps as best as he could, screaming and encouraging the babies to cry out!
Fight it out
In Bali, during the Usaba Sambah Festival, the girls ride on Ferris wheels and boys fight. What’s the big deal? Well, the unmarried girls seat themselves on the Ferris wheel that is turned on and on for hours while they watch the boys fight each other with thorny pandanus leaves. Ouch! That hurts, but hey the girls are watching, right? Each player is given a woven bamboo shield for protection, but they are usually thrown away because they’re too uncool.
Roll cheese!
Men in England might not want to dive with vines around their ankles, but they are more than willing to race down a steep hill chasing after a small block of rolling cheese! What do they get? The person who outruns the cheese to the finish line wins the block of cheese as reward. Few others win a trip to the emergency room.
The glory of mud
If you wince at the sight of a small splotch of mud on your T-shirt, what would you say about the Boryeong Mud Festival? Everybody who likes to be one with Mother Earth flock to South Korea and indulge in splashing mud at each other and themselves. The other entertainment reasonably revolves around mud itself-mud massage, mud cosmetics and mud photo contest. If you’re wondering how girls brave it all, the mud is supposed to be packed with minerals so that’s like a free, healthy mud facial!
Picture Credit : Google
