15 Unusual Holiday Celebrations That Only Exist in One Country
Cultural celebrations provide intriguing glimpses into the history, values, and character of a country. Certain celebrations are so distinctively linked to a particular nation’s culture that they are only found there, even if holidays like Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated with comparable rituals throughout the world.
These unique customs frequently blend religious rituals, historical occurrences, mythology, and indigenous inventions to provide experiences that are wholly unique to that country. Here is a list of 15 unusual holiday festivities that are exclusive to one nation and highlight the stunning diversity of human cultural expression worldwide.
La Tomatina – Spain
Thousands of people throw overripe tomatoes at one another in a friendly battle that turns the little Spanish town of Buñol into the biggest food brawl in the world every August. Over 150,000 tomatoes are used in this hour-long tomato war, which results in red pulp that, because of the fruit’s acidity, actually cleans the cobblestone streets.
What started as an unplanned altercation at a local festival in 1945 has grown into a popular tourist destination that attracts visitors from all over the world to this distinctively Spanish celebration of messiness and group happiness.
Monkey Buffet Festival – Thailand
In the province of Lopburi, Thailand, locals host an annual feast not for themselves but for the 3,000 macaque monkeys that inhabit the region. Enormous towers of fruits, vegetables, and traditional Thai desserts are arranged in elaborate displays for the monkeys to devour, while human observers watch the chaotic feeding frenzy.
This unusual celebration honors the monkeys as descendants of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman and recognizes their importance to local tourism, creating one of the world’s most distinctive animal-centered festivals.
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Whipping Monday – Czech Republic and Slovakia
The day after Easter, men and boys in rural Czech and Slovak villages participate in a tradition that involves gently whipping women with decorated willow switches called pomlázky. According to folk belief, the ritual transfers the willow tree’s vitality and fertility to the women, who reward their whippers with painted eggs, candy, or alcohol.
Far from being considered offensive within the culture, many women view not being whipped as a sign they’ve become unattractive or unpopular, though younger generations increasingly view the tradition through a more modern lens.
Krampusnacht – Austria
While much of the world celebrates St. Nicholas as a kindly gift-giver, Alpine Austrian towns embrace his demonic counterpart, Krampus, with equal enthusiasm. On December 5th, young men dressed as horned, fur-covered beasts with carved wooden masks parade through streets, rattling chains and frightening children who’ve misbehaved throughout the year.
These Krampus figures carry switches for symbolic whipping and sometimes playfully chase pedestrians during processions. The celebration creates a darkly fascinating contrast to Christmas’s gentler traditions and maintains ancient pre-Christian winter rituals.
National Cheese Rolling Competition – England
On Cooper’s Hill near Gloucester, England, competitors chase an 8-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down an extremely steep incline in a competition dating back hundreds of years. Participants often tumble head over heels down the 200-yard course, frequently resulting in injuries as they pursue the cheese wheel, which can reach speeds up to 70 miles per hour.
The first person to cross the finish line wins the somewhat battered cheese wheel, with competitors coming from around the world to risk bodily harm in this quintessentially eccentric English tradition.
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Tinku “Punch Your Neighbor” Festival – Bolivia
In the Bolivian highlands, indigenous Aymara communities gather annually for a festival that includes ritualized fighting between participants from different villages. Men and women alike engage in hand-to-hand combat, with participants believing that spilled blood will bring good harvests by nourishing Mother Earth.
Traditional flute music, dancing, and colorful outfits accompany the fighting, creating a festive atmosphere despite the physical confrontations. While authorities have tried to reduce injuries by implementing some rules, this ancient tradition continues as an important cultural expression of indigenous identity.
Songkran Water Festival – Thailand
Thailand transforms into the world’s biggest water fight during Songkran, the Thai New Year celebration held during the hottest month of the year. For three days in April, people roam the streets with water guns, buckets, and hoses, drenching anyone in their path as a symbolic washing away of the previous year’s misfortunes.
Originally involving the gentle pouring of scented water over Buddha images and elders’ hands, modern celebrations have evolved into joyous aquatic chaos across the country, with particular intensity in tourist areas like Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Up Helly Aa – Scotland
In the Shetland Islands of Scotland, locals celebrate their Viking heritage each January with Europe’s largest fire festival. The celebration culminates when a full-sized replica Viking longship is dramatically set ablaze after a torchlight procession led by a thousand costumed participants called guizers.
After the spectacular burning, revelers continue celebrating with performances and dancing until the following morning. This distinctly Scottish festival combines historical reverence with communal celebration in a way that perfectly reflects the islands’ unique cultural position between Scottish and Nordic influences.
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Nijmegen Vierdaagse – Netherlands
The world’s largest multiple-day walking event takes place annually in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, where over 40,000 participants walk distances of 30, 40, or 50 kilometers daily for four consecutive days. Unlike most holidays centered around relaxation, this celebration of endurance sees participants proudly collecting blisters while spectators line the routes to offer refreshments, music, and encouragement.
The event culminates with the celebratory “Via Gladiola,” where successful finishers receive gladiolus flowers and parade down a flower-lined street to tremendous applause.
Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) – Japan
In Kawasaki, Japan, an ancient fertility festival celebrates reproductive health with giant wooden and steel phallus statues carried through the streets by celebrating participants. Temple priests bless these elaborate carvings while attendees enjoy phallus-shaped lollipops, vegetables carved into suggestive shapes, and other themed foods and souvenirs.
Originally a celebration where prostitutes prayed for protection from disease, the modern festival maintains its traditional roots while adding a contemporary dimension as a celebration of diversity and an AIDS awareness fundraiser.
Wife Carrying Championship – Finland
In the small Finnish town of Sonkajärvi, married couples compete in a race where husbands carry their wives through an obstacle course featuring water hazards and challenging terrain. The competition’s official carrying position has the wife hanging upside-down on the husband’s back with her legs wrapped around his neck, though other techniques are permitted.
The winner receives the wife’s weight in beer, and the event claims roots in the historical practice of men proving their worthiness as husbands by demonstrating their ability to prevent their wives from stealing from neighboring villages.
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Día de los Muertos Underwear Run – Mexico
In the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende, expatriates and locals alike participate in a charity underwear run through the town’s historic center during Day of the Dead celebrations. Hundreds of participants wearing only undergarments decorated with skeleton motifs race through cobblestone streets, collecting donations for local children’s charities.
The unusual celebration blends the traditional Mexican holiday’s themes with modern fundraising efforts, creating a uniquely cross-cultural event that now draws participants from throughout Mexico and abroad.
Battle of the Oranges – Italy
The northern Italian city of Ivrea hosts an annual food fight where participants throw oranges at each other with surprising intensity and organization. Divided into nine squads on foot and teams on horse-drawn carriages, competitors reenact a historical uprising against tyrannical rulers through the symbolic battle using over 500,000 pounds of oranges.
Spectators wearing red hats are traditionally spared from being targeted, while the town’s historic squares become slippery battlegrounds covered in citrus pulp during this unusual celebration of liberty and resistance.
Boryeong Mud Festival – South Korea
Every summer, the coastal town of Boryeong invites visitors to cover themselves completely in gray mud harvested from the local flats, which is believed to have beneficial skin properties. Activities include mud wrestling, mud slides, mud swimming, and even a mud prison where clean attendees are captured and forcibly covered in the mineral-rich sludge.
Originally created as a marketing event for Boryeong mud cosmetics in 1998, the festival has grown into a major international attraction drawing over two million participants annually to experience this uniquely Korean celebration of messiness.
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Hadaka Matsuri – Japan
In midwinter, approximately 10,000 men dressed only in minimal loincloths gather at Saidaiji Temple in Okayama to compete for sacred wooden sticks called shingi, which are believed to bring good fortune to the winner. The festival begins with participants purifying themselves in cold water before the lights are switched off and priests throw the shingi into the crowd, sparking an intense competition in the darkness.
This centuries-old Shinto ritual combines religious devotion with physical endurance in a celebration that perfectly demonstrates Japan’s unique ability to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world.
Cultural Celebrations Beyond Borders
These fifteen distinctive celebrations reveal how holidays often reflect the deepest aspects of national identity and cultural values, from Spain’s exuberant messiness to Finland’s practical approach to marriage. While globalization increasingly homogenizes many aspects of culture, these unique celebrations demonstrate the persistence of distinctive traditions that resist international standardization.
They remind us that despite our increasingly connected world, the beautiful diversity of human cultural expression continues to thrive in these annual moments of collective joy, remembrance, reverence, and sometimes delightful absurdity that make our global tapestry of traditions so richly varied.
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