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Summer Fun
Every year hundreds of crazy festivals and World Championships are held globally; around 40 such events being held in Finland. Leading the way is the World Wife-Carrying Championships first staged in Sonkajärvi in 1992. The competition dates back to the 19th century when a marauder, Rosvo Ronkainen, initiated raids on surrounding villages, with the express purpose of making off with someone else's wife. The competition has been somewhat modified over the years, all wives now having to be returned for a start. The present course is a 253.5m track made up of sand, grass and asphalt with added dry and water obstacles. In keeping with Finnish tradition, the winner receives the wife's weight in beer!
Hot on the heels is the World Sauna Bathing contest held in Heinola. In the final, the starting temperature is 110oC which rises every 30 seconds as a litre of water is poured onto the stove. The winner is the last person to stay in the sauna and then walk-out unassisted. Finland has dominated the event; no foreign competitor has ever made it into the finals of the men's competition and the first non-Finnish winner in the women's competition was Natalia Tryfanava from Belarus who won on three consecutive occasions between 2003 and 2005.
The 2007 World Mobile-phone Throwing Championships held in Savonlinna was won with a throw of 89.62 metres by engineer Tommi Huotari who trains by throwing potatoes.
Non-seasonal festivals include topless winter jogging (if anyone knows of further details, I would be happy to hear from them) and the Summer Ice Fishing World Championships held this year in Pudasjärvi where, as reported by YLE, the lack of ice was no deterrent. More than 200 competitors (mainly from Finland and Sweden) were put on styrofoam rafts which were anchored to keep contestants from drifting off. Holes were then cut through the styrofoam for fishing.
Other crazy festivals held in Finland include, Ice swimming; the Twangy Guitar Festival; Air guitar playing; Swamp football; Cattle calling; the Kutemajärvi Sex Festival; Barrel rolling; Mosquito swatting and sitting on an ant’s nest!
Farther-a-field the World Bog Snorkeling Championships are held annually in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales. Surely the muckiest dip ever! Wearing only a snorkel and flippers, and uhhh - swimming trunks/costume, competitors flounder their way through 120 metres of peat bog in a race against the clock.
For those who find these activities too energetic, why not head for the Swiss Alps for a beauty contest with a twist? Wild whiskers and marvellous moustaches are the focus of this event in Chur's Brambrüesch district, where around 60 hairy men from the surrounding Alps turn out to compete for the title of Best Beard. Kept warm by their masses of facial hair during the winter months, in summer the competitors flock to Switzerland's oldest city to show off their whiskers.
In England bizarre competitions include giant cheese rolling and the World Pea Shooting Championships, now in its 38th year. The aim is to shoot a pea through a 30 cm tube in the direction of a target three metres away.
In Spain more than 3,000 fiestas (festivals) are staged annually. Dating back to 1945, The 'Tomatina' Tomato Fight is held in Bunol (in the Valencia region). Surely the worlds' biggest food-fight: every year around 30,000 people gather to throw more than 115,000 kilos of tomatoes at each other.
Need an adrenalin rush? Spain’s bull-running fiestas are the favourite in terms of spectacle and excitement. The most famous is in Pamplona to honour Navarre capital's patron saint, San Fermin. First held in 1591, only a few daring souls ran with the 680 – 700 kg bulls. Nowadays, the festival lasts one week and people travel from all around the world to take part. The course is 825 metres long and each day at 08.00 six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks. But, one thing is for sure, the writer of this article has no intention of ever participating!
Mike Bangle is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
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