Top 5 Most Unusual Festivals in the World

On the last Sunday of May in Cooper’s Hill, England, dozens of people chase a nine-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a dangerously steep hill-and the first to crash across the finish line keeps the cheese. Number five: the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling, where broken bones are nearly guaranteed every year-and in 1997, fifteen people were hospitalized before the cheese even stopped rolling. Number four: Spain’s La Tomatina erupts every August when over 40,000 people transform Buñol’s streets into a colossal tomato battlefield, pelting each other with 150,000 overripe tomatoes and painting the city red for hours. Number three: in Thailand, the Monkey Buffet Festival in Lopburi town lays out over four tons of fruit and desserts every November, but only macaque monkeys get to feast-locals and tourists just watch as thousands of monkeys swarm the banquet tables. At number two is the Crying Baby Festival, or Nakizumo, in Tokyo: sumo wrestlers hold babies in their arms, and the first infant to cry is believed to bring good luck for the year-sometimes, referees wear demon masks just to speed up the tears. But the top spot goes to the Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca, Mexico: every December 23rd, local artists spend days carving giant radishes into elaborate scenes depicting everything from Aztec gods to luchadors, and prizes can reach 15,000 pesos for the wildest designs.