32 Strangest Festivals People Celebrate Around the Globe

Boryeong Mud festival takes place every summer in the town of Boryeong, South Korea. This international mud fight attracts millions of visitors from all over the world. Strangely enough, it was originally intended to be a marketing vehicle for local cosmetics producers who use the mineral-rich mud in their products.

Da Shuhua is a traditional Molten Iron Throwing Festival in China originating around 500 years ago in-which blacksmiths throw heated iron into the air for fireworks-like effect.

There is a Mexican festival called Kots Kaal Pato that involves filling pinatas with live animals and beating them to death. The climax is ripping the head off of a live duck.

Each year during the Norwegian festival of Slinningsbålet, pallets are stacked several stories high and are burnt to set the record for the tallest bonfire.

There is a town in Brazil named Santa Bárbara d'Oeste that has a large population of people descended from American Civil War soldiers who fled there after the war. They have an annual festival called the Festa Confederada, where southern activities take place. People dress as southerners, and Confederate flags are flown.

On the Isle of Man, children sing songs and carry lanterns made from turnips, while adults try to predict the future using ashes from the fire on 31st October during a festival called Hop-tu-Naa.

During the International Highline Meeting festival attendees spend most of their time strung up on tightropes stretched across the Italian Alps in Monte Piana.

The annual Merfest in North Carolina sees hundreds of people come together to celebrate being 'merfolk'. Attendees take workshops on underwater modeling and how to hold their breath, and also swim with Hannah Fraser, a professional mermaid and environmental activist.

During the Nalukataq festival held by the Inupiat Eskimos, seal or walrus skin is used as a sort of trampoline. A group of people function as the springs of the trampoline and rhythmically pull on it so that the person standing on the skin is thrown up 20 feet in the air.

Shakespeare Mas is a part of Grenadian carnival where participants recite from Shakespeare and beat each other over the head with sticks when they make mistakes.