Celebrations from around the world that are as messy as Holi

Prepare to get soaked

Originated from the practice of sprinkling water on family members and elders for good fortune and prosperity for the coming year, Thailand’s New Year’s Eve celebration has now translated into a three-day water fight festival. Celebrated every year from April 13 to 15, the Songkran Festival is the country’s longest public holiday where locals take to the streets and splash water at each other.

While most people use water guns and hoses, some carry gallons to throw ice-cold water at passer-bys. The festival marks the end of the hottest period in Thailand and the start of the annual rainfall. Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern capital, organises the biggest Thailand Water Festival parade every year.

A messy mayhem

The sleepy little town of Boryeong, 200 km south of Seoul, plays host to millions of tourists every year during its annual mud festival. Conceived in 1998 as a marketing strategy to promote and spread awareness about the quality of Boryeong mud cosmetics—the mineral-rich mud is believed to be beneficial to skin due to its Germanium and Bentonite content—this tiny local festival grew up to become a global event. The festival that takes place in July on the Daecheon Beach features mud wrestling, mud sliding, mud fireworks and mud king contest.

Sloshed!

On Saint Peter’s day (June 29), Spaniards douse each other in wine during La Batalla del Vino in Rioja, which translates to the battle of wine. Part of the Haro Wine Festival, wine-warriors are compulsorily dressed in white before jugs of wine are poured on them at this annual celebration in the wine-making town of Haro. The history of the festival is a little muddled with some saying that the odd tradition can be traced back to a dispute with a neighbouring town over the ownership of the mountain ranges separating them. Others believe that the mountain was home to a monk, who became the patron saint of Haro. Pilgrims would gather around the spot for a feast, which would turn a little rough and eventually lead to a wine fight. The battle usually lasts until afternoon, post which everyone heads back to the city where the celebrations continue.

Flying oranges

Another tradition with a murky history that goes as far as the 12th century and now has men, women and children hurling a citrus fruit at each other is Spain’s Battle of Oranges. The tale behind this annual battle is the revolt of the townspeople on the palace owned by Marquis Raineri Biandrate, a tyrant who attempted to rape a young woman but met his death when the woman fought back and decapitated him. The Battle of Oranges observes this medieval uprising where people on foot represent the commoners and the ones on floats, the tyrants’ guards. Their ammunition, crates of oranges that are pelted at each other. The day of combat takes place in March every year in the northern Italian city of Ivrea.

Melon skiing, anyone?

The small town of Chinchilla in Queensland has a peculiar biennial festival. Known for commercially growing melons, as part of attracting visitor to the town, Chinchilla started the Melon Festival in 1994. The celebration, which will next take place from February 16 to 19, 2017, hosts numerous melon-themed events that include melon skiing, melon iron man, melon bungee, pip spitting and melon tossing. In its debut year, the town had a crowd of 3,000, which increased to 10,000 in 2009.

World’s largest paint party

It started off as a college festival in Florida in 2006 and later spread its wings to the biggest cities in the world. Life in Colour, which was earlier known as Dayglow, fuses thumping music with dance and paint. The 2016 spring tour, which kicked off in January, made pit stops in Denver, Manchester, Lansing and Kalamazoo and will now venture to Seattle, Houston, Izmir, Chicago and Dubai.