The full catalogue of singular traditions
Fire Walk: Paso del Fuego
San Pedro Manrique, Soria, Spain · Jun
Locals walk barefoot over 400°C embers, sometimes carrying another person on their back. An ancient Celtic ritual unchanged for centuries.
August New Year's Eve
Bérchules, Granada, Spain · Aug
In 1994 a power cut killed the midnight countdown. Every August since, the village re-enacts New Year's Eve on a hot summer night, fireworks and all.
Entroido de Laza
Orense, Galicia, Spain · Feb
Peliqueiros hunt bystanders with cowbells. Mud rags stuffed with live ants are hurled at the crowd. One of Europe's oldest and most visceral carnivals.
Tamborrada de San Sebastián
San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain · Jan
For 24 uninterrupted hours the entire city marches beating drums. At midnight the mayor raises the city flag and 5,000 drums start simultaneously.
Cascamorras
Guadix & Baza, Granada, Spain · Sep
For 535 years a lone runner from Guadix has tried to reach Baza's church spotless to reclaim a Virgin. Thousands cover him and each other, in black paint. He has never once made it.
Els Enfarinats
Ibi, Alicante, Spain · Dec
Every December 28th a costumed militia stages a coup, seizes the town and taxes passers-by. Dissent is punished with flour, eggs and firecrackers until the old order is restored at dusk.
Batalla del Vino
Haro, La Rioja, Spain · Jun
On June 29th thousands climb the crags of Bilibio in white shirts and soak each other with tens of thousands of litres of red wine until everyone is purple.
Jarramplas
Piornal, Cáceres, Spain · Jan
A masked figure in a rainbow-ribboned suit walks the streets of Spain's highest village while the whole town hurls turnips at him. Locals wait years for the honour of taking the beating.
Festival do Contrabando
Alcoutim (PT) & Sanlúcar de Guadiana (ES), Spain · Apr
For three days a floating bridge joins Portugal and Spain across the Guadiana. Both villages relive their smuggling past: you buy a red scarf, cross the border 'illegally' and trade in a 1940s frontier market.
Carnaval dos Caretos de Podence
Trás-os-Montes, Portugal · Feb
Men in ancient pagan masks chase and harass anyone in their path through the village. Pre-Christian roots 2,000 years deep. UNESCO Intangible Heritage.
Festa de São João
Porto, Portugal · Jun
Porto's wildest night. The whole city erupts and neighbours gleefully hit each other with plastic hammers. Grills on every corner, music until dawn.
Ivrea Orange Battle
Ivrea, Piedmont, Italy · Feb
Teams pelt each other with oranges for three days re-enacting a medieval rebellion against a tyrant lord. Nobody stands on the sidelines here.
'Ntinna a Mari
Cefalù, Sicily, Italy · Aug
A ship's mast slick with grease juts out over the harbour. One by one, locals and the brave walk it to grab the flag at the tip and one by one they slap into the sea, to the roar of the whole town.
Calcio Storico
Florence, Tuscany, Italy · Jun
Four neighbourhoods of Florence fight a 16th-century match that is equal parts rugby, boxing and siege warfare, on sand, in costume, for nothing but honour and a white calf.
Festa dei Gigli
Nola, Campania, Italy · Jun
Eight wooden obelisks, twenty-five metres tall and four tons each, are hoisted onto the shoulders of teams of over a hundred men and danced through the narrow streets of Nola to a live Neapolitan beat. A UNESCO tradition honouring Saint Paolino, unbroken since the fifth century.
Cavalcata Sarda
Sassari, Sardinia, Italy · May
3,000+ riders and dancers from 100 Sardinian municipalities parade in centuries-old local costumes. A different Sardinia from any postcard.
Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling
Brockworth, Gloucestershire, UK · May
Competitors hurl themselves down a near-vertical hill chasing a 4kg wheel of Double Gloucester cheese. No official organisation, no safety net. Real injuries, real winner.
Royal Shrovetide Football
Ashbourne, Derbyshire, UK · Feb, Mar
For two days the whole town is the pitch: shops board up, the river is in play and hundreds push a hand-painted ball toward goals three miles apart. Played since at least 1667.
Tar Barrels
Ottery St Mary, Devon, UK · Nov
On November 5th, men, women and children of Ottery families carry flaming tar barrels on their shoulders at a run through packed streets. Only locals carry; generations train for it.
Up-Helly-Aa
Lerwick, Shetland, UK · Jan
Thousands dressed as Vikings drag a hand-built longship through town and burn it at midnight to the sound of horns. The largest fire festival in Europe.
Kukeri
Rural villages, Bulgaria, Bulgaria · Jan, Feb
Men in enormous fur costumes and terrifying hand-carved masks parade by torchlight ringing cowbells to drive out evil spirits. A 2,000-year Thracian ritual.
Busójárás
Mohács, Hungary · Feb
Horned, sheepskin-clad busós cross the Danube by boat and take over the town for six days, chasing onlookers, burning winter's coffin and drowning Carnival in noise. UNESCO Heritage.
Galaxidi Flour War
Galaxidi, Greece · Feb, Mar
On Clean Monday this quiet harbour town declares war on itself with hundreds of kilos of flour dyed every colour. By sunset the port, the boats and everyone in them are technicolour.
Vardavar
Yerevan & nationwide, Armenia · Jul
One July Sunday, all of Armenia becomes a water fight. Strangers douse strangers with buckets from balconies and fire hydrants. It's a pagan rite to the goddess Astghik that Christianity never managed to dry out.
Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling
Edirne, Thrace, Turkey · Jun, Jul
The world's oldest continuously-held sporting event, 662 uninterrupted years. Men drenched in olive oil wrestle in a field outside Edirne for three days.
Namahage Sedo Matsuri
Oga Peninsula, Akita, Japan · Feb
Gods who punish laziness descend a mountain by torchlight for a Shinto ceremony in an ancient cedar forest. A ritual unchanged for more than a thousand years.
Yamayaki: Mountain Burning
Nara, Japan · Jan
The entire hillside of Mount Wakakusa is set ablaze each January in a controlled burn that turns the mountain into a glowing mass above the ancient city.
Kakunodate Festival
Kakunodate, Akita, Japan · Sep
Festival floats deliberately crash into each other in a historic samurai town. The collision is the ceremony.
Danjiri Matsuri
Kishiwada, Osaka, Japan · Sep
Teams drag four-tonne wooden shrines at a full sprint through narrow streets, drifting them around corners while men dance on the roofs. Crashes are part of the legend.
Onbashira
Suwa, Nagano, Japan · Apr, May
Once every six years, men ride massive fir trunks down a mountainside to rebuild the pillars of Suwa's shrines. It's a 1,200-year-old rite of log, slope and nerve. Next edition: 2028.
Cheung Chau Bun Festival
Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong, Hong Kong · May
An entire island is covered in towers of sacred steamed buns. At midnight, competitors climb the 14-metre bun towers racing to grab the highest-placed buns.
Nyepi: Day of Silence
Bali, Indonesia · Mar
Bali goes completely dark and silent for 24 hours. No lights, no transport, no noise, across the whole island. An entire civilisation pausing simultaneously.
Omed-Omedan
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia · Mar, Apr
The day after Nyepi, hundreds of young Balinese crowd the street and ritually kiss each other in a mass purification ceremony practiced for 400 years.
Thaipusam
Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia · Jan, Feb
Hindu devotees carry elaborate altars pierced through their skin as an act of devotion. They feel no pain. The scale of it, millions of pilgrims, defies comprehension.
Bun Bang Fai: Rocket Festival
Yasothon, Isan Region, Thailand · May, Jun
Communities fire homemade rockets up to 9 metres long into the sky as an offering to the rain gods. Villages compete on altitude and spectacle.
Pahiyas Festival
Lucban, Quezon Province, Philippines · May
Every 15 May, residents of Lucban decorate their homes with kiping, translucent rice wafers dyed in vivid colours, competing street by street for the best facade.
Hornbill Festival
Kohima, Nagaland, India · Dec
All 17 Naga tribes gather in India's most remote state, sharing warrior dances, living traditions and the culture of a people most travellers will never know exist.
Hemis Festival
Hemis Monastery, Ladakh, India · Jun, Jul
Masked Cham dances performed by monks at the largest monastery in Ladakh, at 3,600 metres. The courtyard, the Himalayan backdrop and the ceremony are inseparable.
Paro Tshechu
Paro, Bhutan, Bhutan · Mar, Apr
Festival held since 1644 with masked Cham dances in a fortress-monastery. Buddhism completely alive, not performed for cameras.
Tapati Rapa Nui
Easter Island, Chile · Feb
The entire island of Easter Island competes in traditional Polynesian disciplines for two weeks. Rapa Nui turns itself into a stage and puts you on it.
Señor de Qoyllur Ritti
Mount Sinaqara, Cusco, Peru · May, Jun
Pre-Inca pilgrimage to a sacred peak at 4,700m combining Andean sun worship with Corpus Christi. Torchlight, a glacier at 5am and 70,000 pilgrims who are not there for you.
Virgen del Carmen de Paucartambo
Paucartambo, Cusco, Peru · Jul
Patron festival fusing Christian iconography with deep Andean cosmology. Masked dancers perform on rooftops and in the streets of a colonial village.
Chaccu de la Vicuña
Pampa Galeras, Ayacucho, Peru · Jun
Revival of the Inca ritual round-up of vicuñas at high altitude. Thousands form a human chain kilometres wide across the Andean puna to corral the animals.
Carnaval de Oruro
Oruro, Bolivia, Bolivia · Feb
Andean ritual fused with Catholic devotion. The Diablada parade, with thousands in intricate devil costumes, is one of the great spectacles on Earth. UNESCO Heritage.
La Diablada de Píllaro
Píllaro, Tungurahua, Ecuador · Jan
For six days every January, thousands of Andean villagers dress as devils and take over the streets of Píllaro in one of Latin America's most ancient carnivals.
Parintins Folklore Festival
Parintins, Amazonas, Brazil · Jun
Two teams compete inside a 35,000-seat stadium built in the middle of the Amazon rainforest to recreate the legend of the Guaranteed Bull. Three nights, no draws.
Día de Muertos: Xoxocotlán
Oaxaca, Mexico, Mexico · Nov
Families spend the night in the cemetery with their dead, among thousands of candles and marigold carpets that turn the whole site into an act of love.
Ouidah Voodoo Festival
Ouidah, Benin, Benin · Jan
Thousands of practitioners gather in the Sacred Forest of Kpassè. Benin is the only country where Voodoo is the official state religion.
Akwasidae
Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana · Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
The Ashanti King emerges in a golden palanquin every six weeks, surrounded by royal drums and centuries of court ceremony. The kingdom is alive.
Timkat
Gondar & Lalibela, Ethiopia, Ethiopia · Jan
Priests carry Ark replicas in procession before a mass dawn baptism at a historic pool. Christianity as it has looked here for 1,600 years.
Naghol: Land Diving
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, Vanuatu · Apr, May, Jun
Men jump from 30-metre wooden towers with only vines tied to their ankles, grazing the earth with their shoulders. The origin of bungee jumping, practised 2,000 years before the concept existed.