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For the curious minds that want to find out about the interesting holidays that are celebrated around the world, we have compiled a large list from all over the internet then voted on and ranked the top 27 most interesting holidays from around the world. Hope you enjoy them and don’t forget to share!

1. SANTA RUN, Newtown – Wales

Santa Run

Santa Run: http://www.getreading.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/first-reading-santa-run—8285655

Do you like running? How about jolly old Saint Nick? If these two things are among your favorite things, the Santarun celebration is just the festival for you. In Newton, Wales, over 5,000 people gather together to run a 7 kilometer race…all while dressed like Santa Claus! These red-clad runners jog on behalf of charity. What a great way to get in the holiday spirit of giving!

2. Lopburi Monkey Buffet – Thailand

Monkey Banquet Festival

Monkey Banquet Festival: http://event-carnival.com/thailand/lopburi-monkey-banquet-festival

Have you ever seen a monkey enjoying a buffet? That’s exactly what happens at the Lopburi Monkey Buffet. This celebration occurs on the last weekend of November of each year, and it’s a wild–or should we say wildlife–party. Villagers lay out a variety of delicious foods for primates to snack on and enjoy. They even treat their monkey friends to some Coca-cola! This buffet is one to make humans jealous.

3. Night of the Radishes – Oaxaca, Mexico

Night of the Radishes

Night of the Radishes: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rebeccadru/11552380863

You may have seen pumpkins or gourds carved for celebrations, but how about radishes? On December 23rd every year, residents of the Mexican state of Oaxaca hold a festival of carved radishes. Radishes are handpicked for their shapes and sizes and carved into a variety of scenes and objects. One popular scene that these vegetables are carved into is the Nativity to celebrate the upcoming holiday of Christmas.

4. Melon Day – Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan Melon Day Farmers

Turkmenistan Melon Day Farmers: http://www.lazerhorse.org/2016/08/06/turkmenistan-melon-day-information/

How would you like to celebrate a day honoring a fruit? That is just what happens on Melon Day in Turkmenistan. Citizens enjoy festivities surrounding the delicious fruit and a popular crossbreed melon called a muskmelon. What other fruit holidays do you think should be celebrated?

5. Mud Festival – South Korea

Mud Festival

Mud Festival: http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-boryeong-mud-festival-south-korea-2015-7?r=UK&IR=T

If you don’t mind getting a little dirty, you’d love the Mud Festival that is celebrated every July in South Korea. With a variety of activities from inflatables to zip lining, there is something for everyone. Of course, mud-wrestling takes the cake! Would you mind getting muddy from head to toe?

6. September 19th: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

International-Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day

International-Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day: http://www.buzzfyre.com/international-talk-like-a-pirate-day/

Ahoy mateys! This here celebration is a parrrty for everyone! Argh! Have you ever participated in speak like a pirate day? It’s a great excuse to practice a unique accent and dress up in some pirate swag!

7. Dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead) – Mexico

Dia de los muertos

Dia de los muertos: http://monipag.com/claudia-dozias/2017/01/03/el-dia-de-los-muertos/

This ghoulish holiday is a national holiday celebrating death. Family and friends gather together and pray for the souls of loved ones who have passed on. Often times they build altars called ofrendas to honor their deceased loved ones. These altars are decorated with skulls, foods, beverages, and marigolds. Other gifts are left for loved ones. The Day of the Dead celebrates the death and life of loved ones.

8. SUNBURNT CHRISTMAS – Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

Bondi-Beach

Bondi-Beach: http://chri.olhblogspace.com/2014/12/04/pictures-of-christmas-around-the-world/

This tradition that is celebrated in Sydney, Australia trades out coats and mittens for swimsuits and tanning oil. Mixed in with swimsuits are Santa hats donned by attendees. Music, water, and sand is the perfect combination for a hot Christmas party. Could your Christmas traditions use a little sun?

9. Inti Raymi – Cuzco, Peru

Inti Raymi

Inti Raymi: http://www.kukatripperu.com/content/inti-raymi-sunfest

On every June 24, people from Cuzco, Peru re-enact the Incan sun ceremony. Hundreds of people from all over the world gather together to celebrate the winter solstice. A man is chosen to portray an emperor and is carried on a golden throne to Sacsayhuamán. There he asks for the sun’s blessings for the new months ahead.

10. Caroling with a Dead Horse – Wales

Caroling with a dead horse

Caroling with a dead horse: http://www.core77.com/posts/59203/Mari-Lwyd-the-Festive-Zombie-Who-Rhyme-Battles-Outside-Your-House?fromNewsdog=1&utm_source=NewsDog

This Welsh tradition is caroling with a twist. One caroler trades out a hat for a real horse skull. A group of people joins the skull-wearer to go door-to-door, singing carols and wishing good luck. And, if they’re lucky, they’ll receive some food and drink in return for their good wishes and songs.

11. Picnic Day

Picnic Day

Picnic Day: http://www.ellaslist.com.au/articles/whats-on-for-kids-and-families-in-sydney-on-australia-day

Pull out your checkered blankets and wicker baskets for this relaxing holiday! Picnic Day is celebrated in northern Australia on the first Monday of August. Celebrate this holiday with a small picnic with loved ones or join the massive picnic that is held by the Adelaide river. What kind of picnic foods would you pack for this holiday?

12. Underwater Music Festival – Florida, USA

Underwater Music Festival

Underwater Music Festival: http://www.keylargochamber.org/events/31st-Annual-Underwater-Music-Festival-752/details

Ever been to an underwater concert? This music festival is celebrated in sea-major with unique costumes and instruments designed specifically for an aquatic spectacular. Mermaids join sea creatures to imitate some under-the-sea melodies.

13. Vanuatu Land Diving Festival – Vanuatu

Vanuatu Land Diving Festival

Vanuatu Land Diving Festival: http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/vanuatu-land-divers/index.html

This festival is not for the faint of heart. As a rite of passage, tribesmen of Vanuatu bungee jump from a wooden tower. Here’s the catch: the bungee cords are made of vines. And, the intent of the jump is to actually hit your head on the ground! All to ensure a good yam harvest. Talk about dedication to agriculture and tradition.

14. Running of The Bulls – Pamplona, Spain

Running of The Bulls

Running of The Bulls: https://funalive.com/articles/running-of-the-bulls-10-pics_6NK.html

This list wouldn’t be complete with the running of the bulls! Every year during the famous San Fermin festival in Spain, around a dozen bulls are set loose to run the streets of the town! On average about 200 to 300 people are injured each year by this bizarre tradition. Would you be brave enough to face a herd of angry bulls?

15. GIANT LANTERN FESTIVAL – City of San Fernando, Philippines

Giant Lantern Festival

Giant Lantern Festival: http://english.cntv.cn/2015/12/22/VIDE1450737006800700.shtml

 

On the Saturday night before Christmas Eve, San Fernando in the Philippines is illuminated with stars, but not the kind you’re thinking of. Called The Giant Lantern Festival, participants present giant illuminated lanterns that are often in the shape of stars. Some lanterns are as big as 40 feet in diameter and contain over 4,000 light bulbs! Does your family participate in a similar tradition?

16. The Feast of Anastenaria – Bulgaria and Greece

Feast of Anastenaria

Feast of Anastenaria: https://www.prayer-bracelet.com/2012/05/feast-of-saint-helen-the-anastenaria-custom/

Would you ever dance on live coals? Participants of the Feast of Anastenaria would! This feast celebrates the daring rescue of icons of saints from a fire from the Church of Saint Constantine back in the Middle Ages. The churchgoers who rescued the icons were miraculously unharmed by the fire. Participants in fire dancing during the feast claim not to feel the flames as they are “touched by Saint Constantine.”

17. National Miniature Golf Day – America

National Mini Golf Day

National Mini Golf Day: http://thedaysoftheyear.com/celebrate-miniature-golf-day/

Perhaps as an excuse to celebrate, Americans created the holiday National Miniature Golf Day. Can you make all 18 holes in only 18 strokes?

18. Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling – Cooper’s Hill, UK

Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling

Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling: http://weird-festivals.silk.co/page/Cheese-Rolling

Would you ever chase cheese down a hill? Participants in the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling would! Large Gouda cheeses are rolled down the hill with participants racing after. Do you think you could catch yours?

19. The Chap & Hendrick’s Olympics – England

Chap and Hendrick's Olympics

Chap and Hendrick’s Olympics: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1665860/posts

These Olympics don’t involve pole vaulting or downhill skiing, rather dry martini mixing and racing with pipes. A July tradition in England, these Olympics put gentlemanly-ness to the test.

20. Holi – India

Holi

Holi: https://ueat.utoronto.ca/happy-holi/

Perhaps the most colorful festival in the world, the Holi festival in India is full of singing, dancing, and color fights. Colored powders and water are thrown at participants, creating a rainbow like you’ve never seen before. Come prepared to walk away with every color imaginable on your skin, clothes, and hair!

21. THREE KINGS DAY – Mexico

Three Kings Day

Three Kings Day: http://bbinimble.com/uruguay-events/

At the end of the “Twelve Days of Christmas”, this Mexican holiday celebrates the biblical story of the Three Kings who followed a star till they came upon Christ and gave him gifts. One tradition that is celebrated during this holiday is the baking of Rosca. Baked into this ring of sweet bread is a figure of Jesus. Whoever finds the figure becomes the host of Candelaria in February.

22. Up-Helly-Aa – Scotland

Up Helly Aa

Up Helly Aa: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-30999590

This celebration held in the middle of the winter in Scotland takes bonfires to the next level. Participants dressed in Viking-themed costumes march with torches to a Viking ship replica where they then toss the torches onto the deck of the ship and watch it burn. This tradition is quite fiery!

23. Day of The Sea – Bolivia

Day of the Sea

Day of the Sea: https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21650578-south-american-border-dispute-has-implications-international-law-beaches-future

On March 23rd of every year, a solemn procession is held in Bolivia to commemorate the loss of the Port of Calama to Chile. Now a landlocked country, they remember and mourn their loss of ownership of seaside lands by listening to recordings of ship’s horns and sea gulls.

24. Gilroy Garlic Festival – California, USA

Gilroy Garlic Festival

Gilroy Garlic Festival: http://www.soliswinery.com/blog/garlic-festival-gilroy/

Garlic-lovers, this is the festival for you. Every year in July, there is a celebration of one of the most pungent spices in the world–garlic! If you’re daring enough, you can try their infamous garlic ice cream. Vampires beware.

25. Carnival of Venice – Venice, Italy

Carnival of Venice

Carnival of Venice: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/veneto/venice/articles/Venice-carnival-guide/

If you love dressing up in fancy clothes and wearing masks, you’d love the Carnival of Venice. Participants of the carnival enjoy live music, entertainers, and even jugglers. In the evening, masked balls and parties give partygoers a chance to live a real-life fairytale.

26. Straw Bear Day – England

Straw Bear Day

Straw Bear Day: http://event-carnival.com/unitedkingdom/straw-bear-day

In celebration of the new agricultural year, every January 7th in England a man is covered in straw and led from house to house where he dances in exchange for beer, food, or money. Not quite a scarecrow, but close!

27. Hangeul Day – Korea

Hangeul Day

Hangeul Day: http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=143848

Both North and South Korea celebrate a day of recognition of the creation and proclamation of the Korean alphabet. Called Hangeul Day, it is celebrated by South Koreans on October 9th and on January 15th by North Koreans.

We hope you enjoyed our interesting holiday list. Don’t forget to share it!

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