When the New Year starts, there’s always a party somewhere to celebrate the coming of a new year. Then, in February, you enjoy Valentine’s day and in March, you get to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

Are popular holidays the only time you get to celebrate with your friends and family? Not at all!

Festivals are also a great way to celebrate the beliefs and traditions of your people. While you’ll always find yourself having fun at a festival, some of them might leave you wondering how come people even follow such weird practices.

On that thought, let’s look at some bizarre festivals from around the world.

Nathan Cowley/Pexels | You’ll notice most of these festivals happening during summer

1. The Mud Festival

You already know where this is going. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. This festival takes place in July in the coastal town of Boryeong, South Korea – and it gets messy. The festival is more like a giant party where everyone comes together to dance, eat, and most importantly, host numerous mud-related activities such as mud wrestling.

2. Cheung Chau Bun Festival

Who doesn’t love sweet buns? But do you love them enough to race against hundreds of people to get your hands on them? Maybe you would, if given the chance. The Cheung Chau Bun Festival takes place in May in Hong Kong where people create towers of sweet buns in the days leading up to the festival. The competitors then have to compete against each other to grab as many buns as they can.

Henry & Co./Pexels | An inside secret: the winning prizes are all the buns you catch

3. Baby Jumping Fiesta

Led by superstition and traditional values, Castillo de Marcia, Spain, celebrates the Baby Jumping Festival in June where people have to jump over babies that are resting on blankets as a game. This celebration comes with a lot of cultural values, religious and local traditions, and a little bit of heart-stopping fun.

Pixabay/Pexels | No babies are harmed during the Baby Jumping festival

4. Buso Festival

This festival might be the most ancient tradition out there as it dates back to the 18th century. It consists of men dressing up as the horned devil (Busos) to ‘chase away the winters’ and welcome the summer. It takes place in Mohacs, Hungary during the month of March.

5. La Tomatina

This festival takes place in August and by the name of it alone, one can guess what happens during this time. The people of Spain show their appreciation for tomatoes by having a major tomato fight, which surely gets messy, but is definitely a lot of fun.

So, which festival are you looking forward to attending?