Every year on January 17,the people of San Bartolome de Pinares celebrate St. Anthony by riding their horses, donkeys and mules through piles of burning tree branches.

The unique tradition of leaping over and through flames dates back 500 years, but the men and women of San Bartolome de Pinares still celebrate it religiously. They gather all the branches they find in the days leading up to the festivities, and when dusk falls on the eve of Saint Anthony’s, they light them ablaze. Riders lead their mounts through the burning piles of the village, accompanied by sounds of drums and Spanish bagpipes.

Jumping through the flames is said to bring the animals the protection of St. Anthony Abad, acknowledged as the patron of domestic animals, ever since the Middle-Ages. Locals believe the fire purifies their animals and protects them against illnesses, all year long.

Animal rights activists don’t buy the whole purification deal, but in a country like Spain, where traditions like bullfighting, Shearing of the Beasts or Day of the Geese, they don’t have too many hopes of putting an end to it. Plus, the owners say their animals remain unharmed…

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You know the trouble with wedding dresses? You can’t really do anything with them after the wedding. But artist Lukka Sigurdardottir has come-up with a solution.

Since you can’t wear your wedding-dress again, you might as well eat it, right? Lukka Sigurdardottir dress is made of cake. Checkered-cake that is, covered by a delicious frosting. Oh, an even better idea just came to me. How about you use this as a wedding cake as well, huh? Now we’re talking serious savings and in tough financial times like these, you can never save enough.

via gatherandnest

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The folk art of Temari Balls began in China, but it was introduced in Japan roughly 600 years ago, where it flourished and evolved into a true art-form.

Legend has it, the first Japanese Temari Balls were made from old kimono threads, by mothers who wanted to make their kids something to play with. Silk strings would be wadded up to for a ball that would be wrapped in layers of string. In time, Temari makers started making intricate patterns and Temari slowly turned from a toy into a form of artistic expression.

Traditionally, Temari balls are given to children on New Year’s Eve, by their mothers. Inside the balls, women would put a small piece of paper with a written wish for the child. Since the kid could never find out what the wish was without him destroying the toy, the wish had a greater chance of coming true.

Also known as “gotenmari”, some Temari Balls have a variety of noise-makers inside, to make them more fun. They can be used in handball games and it is said the old Temari Balls were so tightly wrapped, they would bounce.

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Make the entire world your disco. I bet that’s what French artist Michel de Broin thought to himself when he decided to create the world’s largest disco-ball.

It might sound like a crazy idea, but Michael de Broin actually did it. Using a 7.5 meter disco-ball, featuring 1,000 mirror pieces, the artist managed to light up Paris on a winter night. He did so by hanging the giant disco-ball 50 meters up, using a giant crane, and projecting light onto it.

The ball was hung up in the Jardin de Luxumburg and the light effects that covered Paris were more than worth the effort of bulding the whole installation. plus now Michel de Broin could enter the record books for the World’s Largest Disco-Ball.

via Lifelounge

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Located inside the Olympic Stadium, in Beijing, the World Chocolate Dream Park is an Asian version of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, in real life.

Announced last year, as a way of pleasing the increasing number of Chinese chocoholics, the World Chocolate Dream Park is finally open to the public. As promised, the chocolate theme-park features a number of China’s historical and cultural symbols, including a 12-meter-long  chocolate replica of the Great Wall, an army of 560 terracotta soldiers of Emperor Qingshihuang made of chocolate, and a traditional Chinese painting of Panorama Along the Upper River During the Qingming Festival, in original size.

The chocolate terracotta army was announced as life-size, back in 2009, but the miniatures aren’t too shabby. According to a Chinese official, many European chocolate makers wanted in on the project, considering it’s a great way to advertise chocolate to a huge market that’s just discovering it.

Photos via Xinhua

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In an attempt to undermine Kim Jong Il’s authority in North Korea, members of  South Korean nongovernmental organizations constantly send balloons filled with leaflets into North Korea.

On January 10, 2010 activists for the freedom of North Korea and the unification of the peninsula, from Paju, 51 km north of Seoul, sent two helium-inflated balloons into North Korea. They attached bags of leaflets and sweets to them, hoping to convince their northern neighbors to rise against Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship.

This practice has been going on for the last two years and North Korea has repeatedly asked Southern authorities to punish organizations who send the balloons and undermine the country’s regime. In spite of nuclear-war hints from its northern neighbor, South Korea hasn’t taken any measures against the activists.

The constant nuclear threat, reports of serious human rights violations and the existence of political prisoner camps in North Korea, make the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries virtually impossible.

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Ukrainian artist Oksana Mas has created an unusual mosaic portrait of the Virgin Mary, using 15,000 painted Easter Eggs.

Unveiled yesterday, inside the gorgeous Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, the giant mosaic weighs 2.5 tons and is made out of 15,000 wooden Easter Eggs. Oksana Mas started working on her masterpiece nine months ago, painting the eggs all by herself, but later children from all across the country got involved and helped out with the painting.

The Easter-egg portrait of the Virgin Mary, by Oksana Mas, measures 7×7 meters.

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Stuart Haygarth uses thousands of spectacles and eyeglass lenses to create impressive-looking chandeliers.

The tiered chandelier made my Haygarth is called Spectacle and is made out of 1,020 spectacles attached to an acrylic frame. The artist believes using spectacles, tools once used for seeing, draws an analogy between their old purpose and the new one.

Optical is another chandelier by Stuart Haygarth, made from 4,500 spectacle lenses hanging on a monofilament line.

Stuart Haygarth via VeryVeryFun

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Michigan based artist Eric Daigh creates incredibly detailed portraits by sticking thousands of push-pins into notice boards.

32-year-old Daigh begins his work with a digital photo of his subject. He uses a computer to turn it into a low resolution, five-color image (red, blue and yellow,black and white). He then uses a grid map that shows him where to stick each needle.

Eric Daigh holds the Guinness record for the world’s biggest push-pin portraits. His largest works are up to 2 meters  tall and number around 20,000 push-pins. They take about eight months to complete and are much more detailed than his smaller portraits.

Photos by ERIC DAIGH supplied by WENN.COM

via Telegraph.co.uk

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I meant to start this post kind of like this: “Of all the idiotic things I’ve seen in my life…” But MatthewG15 has been picked-on enough on his Flickr profile. So while others call him a douche or a retard, I just want to point out that he didn’t actually hurt anyone (but himself).

Our boy Matthew probably ran out of spots to tattoo so he decided to cross the line and tattoo his face. Apparently he couldn’t afford a pair of real glasses, so he tattooed one instead. Ok, you’re right, that was mean of me, but I’m thinking a real pair would have been cheaper and more practical. Not to mention these will look like crap when he’s a wrinkly old man. Maybe he’s trying to compete with Zombie Boy…

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All funerals are sad and creepy, but they’re way better than feeding the corpse to a bunch of hungry eagles.

Sky burials are often practiced in the mountains of Tibet, both for religious and practical reasons. Basically, the corpse is placed on a mountain top and sliced open in various places, to attract the birds of prey circling above. They’d probably feast on it anyway, but an invitation like that doesn’t hurt.

Most Tibetans are Buddhists and believe in rebirth. Once a person dies, their body is considered nothing more than an empty vessels that needs to disposed of. Since the ground is often as hard as rock and wood and fire are precious resources, feeding nature’s creatures is a practical choice. I know it looks grotesque, but to Buddhists this is a last sign of generosity by the deceased, offering his body as nourishment for other living creatures.

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Over 650 unicyclists from 23 countries, and even more spectators gathered in Wellington, New Zealand, for the 15th 15th International Unicycle World Championships and Convention (UNICON XV).

UNICON is held every two years and welcomes anyone who can ride a one wheeled-bicycle. This year, the 10 day event took place between December 27, 2009 and January 7 2010 and hosted  all sorts of fun competition, performed on unicycles, of course. There were 30 different events, of which the most interesting were MUni (mountain-uni-cycling), Road Racing, Track and Field, Unicycle Hockey and Unicycle Basketball.

Yup, basketball and hockey played while riding a unicycle. Maybe you’ve seen this kind of display before, but it’s definitely new to me. I found some photos from UNICON 2010 and added a couple of videos, so you can better understand the game.

I guess these fall in the same weird category as underwater rugby.

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The first time I laid eyes on Maciej Drwiega’s LEGO trucks, I thought they were life-size, that’s how real they look. Of course the photo angle helped a lot, too.

Maciej Drwiega (let’s see you pronounce that) is a big LEGO fan who likes to build replicas of trucks, using the popular bricks. His 1:13 scale creations look as good as the real vehicles and even have detailed interiors and detachable hoods that reveal the engine. How cool is that? I wonder how long it takes the Polish LEGO master to build one of these babies.

Kenworth K100 Aerodyne

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Ah, these knitted artworks take me back to my high-school biology classes. Come to think of it, these memories are kind of gross…

The Crafty Hedgehog,  a skilled knitting artist, decided to immortalize one of the most exciting moments in the life of a high-school student, the dissection of a frog or rat. Entitled “Knitting in Biology 101”, his project depicts dissected animals, made out of wool and pinned to a dissecting tray of a cork frame. They’re not glued,so you can pick them up and examine the work on both sides.

You’ll be glad to know The Crafty Hedgehog has taken his knitting art even further and is now making “dissecting” fetal pigs and even…the Easter Bunny. If you like this sort of thing, you can order one via The Crafty Hedgehog’s profile on Etsy.

via worldfamousdesignjunkies

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If you think of yourself as a real-life superhero than you need to have an action-figure. Thanks to doll-crafting artist Cyndi Safstrom, now you can.

Cyndi at Be-a-Doll.com offers anyone the chance to own an action-figure of themselves, for just $180 plus shipping fees. All you need to do is send out two photos, one taken from the front and a profile shot, then wait 2-3 weeks for your doll to arrive.

The artist sculpts the head onto a vinyl doll and dresses it according to your desires. Some clients like to have the dolls outfitted just like them, while others prefer to be wear superhero clothes. Anyway you dress it, the doll will be unique, just like you.

Thanks Cyndi!

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