Tibetan Sky Burials Are Super-Creepy
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 […]
The Wishing Spheres of Singapore
Every year, the people of Singapore celebrate the coming of the New Year by launching wishing spheres in the Singapore River. The tradition of the wishing spheres was launched years ago by Singapore’s authorities as a way to bring people together and now it’s become an international event. People travel from all over the world […]
Santa Speedo Run 2009
A bunch of people running in the streets in speedos, or how a small holiday stunt turned into a national phenomenon. The Boston tradition known as the Santa Speedo Run began on a Saturday, in December of 2000, when 5 friends decided to do something completely crazy to spice up their weekly routine. The best […]
Pantomime Horse Grand National Race
One of Britain’s most bizarre racing events, the annual Pantomime Horse Grand National Race is also one of the most fun. Designed as a parody of the Grand National horse race held in Antree, the Pantomime Horse Grand National draws in thousands of people to the city center of Birmingham, all eager to watch the […]
The Eton Wall Game
From the country that brought us rugby and soccer comes one of the oldest, hardest and weirdest ball games in the world, the Eton Wall Game. It’s not clear when the Eton Wall Game was invented, but the first recording of a game dates back to 1766. Its rules were changed several times up to […]
The Buffalo Fighting Festival of Do Son
The Buffalo Fighting Festival is held annually, on the northern coast of Vietnam and draws huge crowds, eager to see a display of violence. Buffalo owners train the peaceful creatures and even pray on the night before the festival, to ensure their beast is victorious. To the crowd’s disappointment the animals often do nothing more […]
The Chicken Madness of Yom Kippur
On Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, ultra-Orthodox Jews use white chickens to perform the Kaparot ritual and get rid of all their sins. The holiest of Jewish days, celebrated with 25 hours of fasting and intense prayer, offers ultra-Orthodox Jews the chance to make a year’s worth of sins vanish. All they need is […]
Pulling the Head Off A Goose Is A Fiesta in Spain
The “Day of the Geese” is a Spanish Fiesta in which “brave” contestants have to wrench the head off a goose while being plunged into the water. In the Basque fishing-town of Lekeitio, near Bilbao, people have a rather unusual way of keeping themselves entertained. Every year, during the Day of the Geese, young men […]
India’s Two-Year-Old Snake Charmers
While other two-year-olds are just learning to walk and talk, the children of the nomad Vadi Tribe are introduced to the centuries-old art of snake charming. All the children of the Vadi Tribe come face to face with a poisonous cobra at age two, and go through a ten-year ritual, in which they learn all […]
KaraTEA
As you all know, Chinese are very serious when it comes to their historical legacy, their centuries old customs and traditions, so it comes as no surprise that even though it’s rapidly becoming one of the most industrialized nations in the world they still honor their forefathers by performing ancient ceremonies. Avery good example is […]
Japanese mud festival
Hundreds of Japanese grown-men wrestle each other in the mud water of Mimusubi shrine in Yotsukaido, a settlement near Tokyo. Every year on February 25 these men take part in this strange yet fun looking rite, believed to bring good harvest for the whole year and good health for babies.