Off
late I guess it is appropriate to call man as an “party animal” rather than a
“social animal”. It is an undeniable fact that we humans love to celebrate and
when we do we sure know how to bring down the house. In addition to the
traditional as well as customary party’s what we throw ranging from birthday’s
to baby showers as man was thirsty for more fun in life hence came the
origination of “carnival’s”. Well what’s life without a little fun anyways? So
let’s dig into some of the crazy festivals/carnival around the globe.
Saint
Patrick's Festival
Saint Patrick’s Day is
celebrated in the remembrance of Saint Patrick on March 17th every
year. This festival is celebrated by true Irishmen and those who feel Irish
from their heart. It is to be believed Saint Patrick baptized people and cast
out paganism. Hence thanks to him there are no snakes on their island.
Craziness
On that day all the stores
are decorated with green shamrock and a three-leaved plant which symbolizes the
day. Even the famous Irish whiskey “Jameson” is sold in green glass bottles. People
were green color dresses few also were costumes with red wigs and green caps.
Custom
They listen to loud Irish
music and sing funny songs all day and at the end of the day they end it with a
grand display of fireworks.
Cheese-Rolling
It is an annual event held on the Spring Bank
Holiday at Cooper's
Hill. Two possible origins have been
proposed for the ceremony. The first is said that it evolved from a requirement
for maintaining grazing rights on the common. The second proposal is pagan
origins for the custom of rolling objects down the hill.
Craziness
People
who take part in the game should roll down the hill trying to catch the
cheeses. This is not as easy as you think it’s actually very dangerous many get
injured during this play but still every year it attract more and more
participants.
Custom
Since
15th century this festival is been taking place every year where the
cheeses has been rolled down the hill and people compete to catch it and the
one who reaches the bottom of the line 1st is the winner.
Monkey Buffet
This festival takes place every year in Thailand. It is a
wired one of all and also my favorite. This festival is so cool that I wanted
to be there for it the next year witnessing it in person.
Craziness
This is a festival where people arrange
a big food fest for around 2000 monkeys in Lopburi
province north
of Bangkok with fruits and vegetables. And the monkeys come to eat it. The festival was described as one of the strangest festivals
by London's The Guardian newspaper.
Custom
There is no such thing as a custom or
tradition for this particular festival it was just started to attract tourist
to the country.
Baby jumping
This is again a wired festival it is actually a traditional Spanish holiday
dating back to 1620 that takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast
of Corpus Christi in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos.
Craziness
El Salto del Colacho (the devil's jump)
or simply El Colacho is a tradition where men dressed as the
Devil (known
as the Colacho) jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year
who lie on mattresses in the street. The festival has been rated as one of the
most dangerous in the world.
Custom
It is said that this is a tradition followed
to cleanse the babies of original
sin, ensure them safe
passage through life and guard against illness and evil spirits. In
recent years, Pope
Benedict has
asked Spanish priests to distance themselves from El Colacho. The Church still
teaches that it is baptism by water, not a giant leap by an
airborne devil, which cleanses the soul of original
sin.
Egg tapping
This
is also known as egg fight, egg knocking, egg pacqueing, egg picking or egg
jarping. It is a traditional Easter game. In English folk traditions, the game
has variously been known as shackling, jarping and dumping.
Craziness
The game rule
is very simple. One holds a hard-boiled egg and taps the egg of another participant with one's own egg intending to
break the other's, without breaking one's own.
Custom
The egg was a symbol of the rebirth of the earth in Pagan celebrations of spring and was adopted
by early Christians as a symbol of the rebirth of man at
Easter. During medieval
times, egg tapping was
practiced in Europe. For instance, the practice was mentioned to have played an
important part in the 14th-century in Zagreb in relation to the Easter festival.
Lantern Festival
Lantern festival takes place every year in
Pingxi a rural district in New Taipei City.
Craziness
Every year during the Lantern Festival, people have their
wishes written on sky lanterns, and release them to the skies hoping their
wishes will come true.
Custom
There is no custom or tradition to this festival it was just
started like that to attract tourists and it luckily got a big reach and in year’s
time spread to China, Japan and Mexico.
Battle of the Oranges
It is a festival in the Northern
Italian city
of Ivrea. The carnival takes
place in February. In early days one of the citizens is elected Mugnaia. Legend
has it that a miller's daughter (la "Mugnaia") called Violetta once
refused to accept the "right" of the local duke to spend a night with
each newly wedded woman and cut his head off. Today the carriages represent the
king's fortress and the orange throwers the revolutionaries.
Craziness
It
is a festival which
includes a tradition of throwing of oranges between organized groups. It is the
largest food
fight in
Italy.
Custom
The core celebration is based on a locally famous Battle of
the Oranges that involves some thousands of townspeople, divided into nine
combat teams, who throw oranges at each other. The carnival starts on Sunday
and it ends on the night of Shrove Tuesday with a solemn funeral.
Traditionally, at the end of the silent march the "General" says
goodbye to everyone with the classical phrase in dialect "arvedse a giobia a ‘n bot", translated as "we'll see each other on Thursday
at one", referring to the Thursday the carnival will start the next year.
Now that we came
across a glimpse of the best carnival’s around the world Let’s not deny to the
thoughts lingering at the back of our heads…why do such festivals exists in the
1st place, aren’t they too extreme or crazy, and much much more.
Well there’s olt one answer to all the thought’s streaming in your head. Life
is meant to be fun and festival’s are just another way to channel our energy
and happiness.
If answers are all you
need then this is definitely not the place for you. Quit questioning and start
living the fun way! But on the contrary every festival has an meaning to its
inception which one can understand only on accepting its purpose without
questioning. So enjoy every moment that life throw’s at you with a smile. Trust
me it won’t hurt to have a little fun. Keep smilingJ
-Chennai ponnu
