"QUANTUM SHOT" #611 Link - article by M. Christian and A. Abrams
Almost as good as "The Festival of the Freshwater Squid" (see here)
As one travels the globe and observes the variety of fairs, festivals, and frivolities, it becomes clear that: 1) the concepts of "weird, strange, bizarre" are really in the eyes of the beholder - and 2) that all humans, no matter where we live, are more than just a bit bonkers.
Although human behavior doesn't vary much, the methods of public celebrations certainly do.
For some baffling reason, for instance, people like to throw things. And depending on the country, what they throw is likely to be different. In Binche, a small town in Belgium, the projectile of choice is a fruit. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday Binche the town is visited by masked figures called Gilles who – later on in the festivities – carry large baskets of oranges through the town. Many of these oranges are calmly, orderly, handed to residents as well as tourists. Others, though, are rather vigorously … well, thrown at wary residents and unfortunate tourists.
Meanwhile, if you happen to be in Buñol, Spain, on the last Wednesday in August, you also might want to duck as the fruit thrown there – while not as hard or potentially damaging as an orange – can still sting a bit. What's fun about La Tomatina at Buñol isn't just the hurled tomatoes but that the town, which normally has a population around 10,000, swells to closer to 60,000 as folks from all over come to throw -- and get thrown at.
If you happen to be in Taihape, New Zealand, things will be flying through the air but none of them – at least as far as we know – have been thrown at anyone. Nevertheless, a festival where people try to throw a gumboot as far as possible could pose some risks to passersby and participants alike.
(a giant gumboot near Taihape, photo by Aaron Hape)
A landscape nearby is seemingly made to be explored in these gumboots (provided you can catch some free ones):
"Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" are words you might want to keep an ear open for if you're in Japan during Setsubun, and happen to see a member of your household holding a handful of roasted soybeans. Mamemaki is the term for it, and "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" ("Demons out! Luck in!") is what is traditionally said before the beans are thrown out the front door – or at another member of the family (maybe even at the house cat):
If you happen to be in India during Holi, the festival of color, you also might want to avoid wearing your best suit of clothes. As part of the celebration, a brightly dyed powder called abir is merrily thrown everywhere – and especially at each other.
Fortunately, not all festivals in the world include hurled objects. Some just have unique themes. Japan's Hōnen Matsuri is a fertility festival, uniquely celebrated in the city of Komaki. By unique we mean prodigious, tumescent, large, and … okay, enough with the jokes, especially since the object of the fertility being celebrated is that certain part of the male anatomy. A similar festival is also held in Kawasaki, called Kanamara Matsuri. See images here - warning, nsfw.
While nothing is thrown, and nothing terribly phallic is evident, there's a festival that absolutely has to be mentioned: an event featuring tremendous beauty that ends with ashes and smoke.
Around the middle of March, the city of Valencia, Spain, has a festival called Falles – a celebration of Saint Joseph. But long before the Falles, Valencia, the third largest city in Spain, begins to prepare: neighborhoods and a wide variety of organizations form groups called Casal Fallers who raise money for their own contributions to the festivities.
It's these contributions that make the event so incredible. Each group – working from a common theme selected for that year – creates a ninot, or puppet. Fashioned from paper, wax, Styrofoam, and a few other materials, ninots are whimsical, outrageous, profane, comical, political, and every one is incredibly beautiful.
The artisans of Valencia have had a very long time to perfect their craft, and it shows in each and every ninot (see a whole bunch here). Each figure and tableau is a hallucinatory mixture of a Renaissance masterpiece and a three-dimensional cartoon. Each one, too, is frequently a wildly executed satirical jab at everything from politics to tradition, from pop culture to the Falles celebrants themselves. Nothing is sacred, nothing is spared.
Then come the fires, and then the ashes. Yes, you guessed correctly: each and every minot, every figure and tableau is lit – exploding into the night sky in a roaring conclusion called La Cremà. In the morning there is nothing but ashes, and the memory of the wonders of the falles.
One of the weirdest festivals of all time - El Colacho in Spain. On this occasion grown men are jumping over the new born babies. Yes, very carefully (mothers do not seem to protest). They do it to get rid of any unknown evil spirits that might hide in these babies:
(photo by Dennis Doyle, AP)
Cheese Rolling, Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England:
In Thailand theres a new year cleansing festival called Songkran.
Its 3 days long and its absolutely mental. You really get to see the Thai people who can sometimes be very serious turn into a bunch of mischevious kids!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran
Some good pics: http://dsphotographic.com/g2/thailand/Songkran/waterfights/
Its also held in other countries across asia but I've only experienced it in Thailand.
Just wanted to add couple of more things about Fallas.
Burning the figures is just one part of Fallas but it's so much more.
Fireworks at day and night. Processions, flower offerings, partying all night long, Buñuelos, Street Mascletà, free concerts, Falleras prancing around.
It's incredible. I will be there for Fallas 2010 - give me shout via my site if you need any information or got a question.
I bought goggles from the steampunk guy in the WGT pic. He makes awesome custom steampunk stuff. I'd post the link to his site but his business card has disappeared into the piles of gumf on my desk.
This was such a pleasure to read. I stumbled upon the page and found myself captivated. Please check out my personal blog sometime, I would love love your feedback, dear.
Of course "ninot indultat" is not spanish. It's catalan! Valencia's langue is the local variation of catalan. Even "Falla" Is a catalan word. In the catalan high pirenees, higher than 2000 m high, deep inside Catalonia, where there are plenty of 10-20 hab. villages, there's a traditional festival called "falles" to. In the summer solstice night,Villagers climb the mountain, cut a tree they have selected and taken care of during the hole year, burn it into flames, and carry it down over the shoulder back tot the village. The whole night, you see fire spots descent from the mountain. As I said, they are called "falles" to. "ninot" just means "puppet" in catalan. It's the same language, and the same country, split into two by the spaniards. The sad thing is the widespread anticatalan xenophobous ideology you can often see in Valencia.
'm just wondering why photos used for the Boryeong festival all feature white people, when it's in fact a South Korean festival. I get that tourists from all over come to participate, but with it being a festival made by Koreans for Koreans, I find it odd you wouldn't showcase photos of Koreans taking part in the festivities.
First of all I would like to appreciate author's creativity and intelligence that inspired him to draft and publish this post. Amazing photography and incredible description.
Apart from few famous European festivals, one Asian festival I liked and that is Holi. Last summer I went to India after purchasing a pocket friendly package from an Indian travel portal called ZapBooking during Holi season and saw people playing with colors in real. Actually, people in India starts celebrating holi around one month before the final day. Small kids and adolescents take advantage of the season to tease the people and irritate them by throwing water balloons and strong colors. However, on the final day , you can see groups and hordes of people with colored faces, hands and hairs on the streets and roads celebrating the festivals and spreading the colors of joy.
It's truly an amazing festivals that people love to celebrate
You should mention the world recorder Hyperinflation "Riches", the Hungarian 100 million billion (100 quintillion) Pengo. Yes, that's a 1 with 20 zeros after it.
To DarkRoastedBlend. Check that : http://www.adme.ru/sberbank/kalendar-sberbanka-sdelali-iz-elementov-banknot-fastway-103341/ russian bank has released creative and weird 2010 calendar made of elements of money...
Edward VIII became King instantly and absolutely upon the death of George V. After the death of a monarch, a period of respect for the dead monarch of approximately one year passes before the celebratory coronation ceremony (or "crowning") of the successor. Edward VIII abdicated before the end of the period of respect had passed, and thus he had not been "crowned" at the time of his abdication. Edward VIII was actually King from January 20, 1936, to December 11, 1936 (the effective date of his abdication). The mere fact that there was no coronation is of trivial significance. The short duration of his reign has much greater significance as to the rarity and value of "his" money.
@darko: That Dinar note is far from being world record... Even the posted Zimbabwean note has 3 more zeros, and that's not WR either. In terms of zeros, no currency managed to "beat" the infamous Hungarian Pengő I posted above.
Czechoslovakia was not occupied by Soviets in 1949. It was back then only the Soviet satellite. The occupation happened in 1968.
INVITATION See my vintage picture blogs: http://mynewoldpictures.blogspot.com http://mypetarts.blogspot.com http://mynaturepictures-benmil.blogspot.com
One of the reasons the 50 pence and twenty pence coins are multi-sided is so that blind people could tell which coins they were holding. A square pound coin was trialled in Jersey but was rejected in favour if a thick, round one, due to vending machine considerations.
You should also mention Cook islands: scallop shaped 1 dollar, triangular 2 dollars and dodecagonal 5 dollars and one shouldn't forget the banknotes for 3 (!) dollars.
fortunately i own one note showed here. its the first one, the Russian Empire bank note. its an A4 sized paper which i inherited from my grandmother. also i own lots of hungarian pengő, also millions. so practically i'm a multi millionaire :)))
a hundred trillion dollars... it's incredible how poor zimbaue is... there's lots of corruption, and they have an acting dictator, I think his name is mugabe. The guy is completely mad, he forced the population of an entire city to move in the desert and starve or something like that... that's just so bad...
The "100 Million" Reichsmark note is actually 100,000,000,000 Reichsmarks. The confusion here is that the names of numbers begin to differ between North America and Europe after the millions. In North America a thousand million is a billion and in Europe a thousand million is a milliard.
All of these were funny or interesting, apart from the Bush ones - it's still painful!
The Regan/Putin one in particular is incredible - easy to forget that he was a KGB man, and even easier to forget he must have done real KGB footwork at one time. Agreed that Charles isn't a politician, just a... right royal charlie. Mandy looks appropriately uncomfortable, also.
people might be interested that the fancy 1942 ‘Concept for Greyhound Coach Lines’ was predated by at least six years... THE GERMANS GOT THERE FIRST... as this link about a 1936 semi-trailer bus proves, (1) semi trailer busses were a reality in the 1930s already; (2) semi-trailer busses did operate in germany in regular public service during the 1930s...1950s; (3) they even had double deckers; (4) they even operatedonrails (insular railway of sylt; system sadly got scrapped in dec. 1970).
wouldn't that page warrant a copycat entry here on d.r.b.? just in order to celebrate the greatness of german semi trailer bus design??
I have invested considerable time and effort into the construction and research of zany bikes and so this post is pure eye candy.
I seem to recall some bike lane proposal that involved enclosed tubes, one for each direction, that were pressurized to help skoot riders along.
There are some pedal-monorails available here and there at amusement parks, mostly in Japan.
There is a version of the tandem robot bike where the rear rider is on fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6W7SLpdNaU
As for the multi-person scooter depicted, this is the fabled "chinese dragon bike", an infinite theoretical bicycle design that is part of bike chopper cryptozoology, such as the "front-wheel-drive, rear steer" or "tall swingbike" (a specimen of which was recently discovered in California). A Cyclecide geezer told me someone had tried to build one and it didn't work, something about how rake on the connecting joints makes it want to carve but it's all connected like one of those fake bamboo snakes that "hover". Make each segment have two wheels, set the connecting pivot to plumb, and you're in business:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAe3c4NKQgc
Flip and upside-down bikes have been around for a century (like tallbikes), not much new under the sun.
The extra-tall bikes pictured are, I believe, Atomic Zombie's, and if you look at the silver one- Project Skywalker- it has a steering bar that lets you control it during a moving ascent or descent.
Great that you like the beer bikes. As an "Amsterdammer" myself I think I speak for all of us when I say:
DIE!
Drunken tourists blocking bicycle lanes, causing accidents, harassing locals (look at me I'm so funny, I'm giving the locals a beer shower). Only ****ing douchebags ride those things.
Ah, to be in Amsterdam, where someone on a bike isn't perceived as a homeless person or pyschopath. It gives you a whole other set of problems. I *wish* drunk tourists on beer bikes were my problem. What about drunk drivers in bike lanes!??!?!
In some municipalities, it is legal to be drinking on a vehicle as long as the operator is sober (and complies with various requirements such as having no open containers within reach or painting a white line behind himself) and so the beer-bike is a sneaky way to be drunk in public.
Another Amsterdammer here: I agree the beerbikes are annoying as hell.
They are for tourists and peasants that go for a day out in the big city. Like on stag-night and such.
There's a reason drinking in public is frowned upon (if not locally banned) and these things illustrate why.
Nevertheless it is fun to do: the pedalling is heavy but the drinking relieves the public humiliation quite nicely and the feeling of intoxicated mobility is really good.
As far a I know the guys/gal with the steering wheel has to stay sober: because it's a big and heavy rig that can cause quite a lot of injuries and damage if you crash it. You can kill someone with this one (which hard to do with a normal bike).
WhymCycle makes exotic bikes from recycled frames. He rarely charges for them, beleiving them to be hart to be shared with people for the joy of riding them.
Great article, as always! Two additions that might be interesting:
A drawing of the interior of the camper bike that is already in the article: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/files/kevin_cyr_camperbike_blueprint_600x438_118.jpg
And here's a concept bike for Cannondale by a Dutch design student. A new take on the classic Dutch bicycle with some very interesting details: http://www.vimeo.com/6255436 http://vanmansum.nl/
Oh the first one is scary as hell like NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET twilight zone!! I can't bring the link on youtube though, i've watched a jet accidentally hit Migratory Birds at high attitude.
Where do you get your facts?! The Sooty Shearwater is outdone by the Bar-Tailed Godwit, which flies from Alaska to New Zealand, without stopping! Also, the bird with the longest migration flight is The Arctic Tern, flying from pole to pole. The Sooty Shearwater?! Pffft...
Many species migrate between Mexico (or further south) and Canada. The Rufous hummingbird migrates all the way up to Alaska, following the USA Western Seaboard.
I would point out that crows are considered more intelligent than dogs. Crows have been known to use timing and precision to have cars crack open nuts. Seeing the success of this, other crows model the behavior. not to mention they have over 200 unique calls with often specific meanings. Saw this on "is it possible" on discovery...
Hehe love the latte links. I've got one more you should add to your list though! It's a great instructional page that gives a really easy and cheap way to make lattes at home and you dont need those huge funky machines! I think you should check it out. http://www.kaycircle.com/index.php?q=How-to-make-a-Latte-at-home-without-a-machine
Where is the "Happy 2010" picture from? I think I recall seeing it without the words here before but I can't find it, now. It's a fantastic photo. Can someone point where I can find a copy without words over it?
Thankyou to everyone involved with DRB for a very wonderful year of posts. My interwebz would not be the same without it. Merry Xmas and bring on a bright new year
Just wanted to let you know that the blue LED lights all over the ground is at Midtown in Tokyo, Japan. They do this "illumination" every year, each year a little different. It's a large lawn (not street) behind the shopping complex. The building you can see in the background is the Midtown building. It's in the Roppongi area of Tokyo.
|
17 Comments:
About the Fallas, every year, one of the puppets is saved from the fire. It is called Ninot Indultat (That's not spanish).
The best of all them is saved from the fire and moved to a museum.
The Fallas has also a lot of pirotechnics events with fireworks and others
Hadaka-matsuri
http://www.gonomad.com/japannomads/2007/03/naked-man-festival.html
In Thailand theres a new year cleansing festival called Songkran.
Its 3 days long and its absolutely mental.
You really get to see the Thai people who can sometimes be very serious turn into a bunch of mischevious kids!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkran
Some good pics:
http://dsphotographic.com/g2/thailand/Songkran/waterfights/
Its also held in other countries across asia but I've only experienced it in Thailand.
RE: the balloon festival in France...Albuquerque, NM has one every year as well, and according to Wikipedia, it's the largest one in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_International_Balloon_Fiesta
Just wanted to add couple of more things about Fallas.
Burning the figures is just one part of Fallas but it's so much more.
Fireworks at day and night. Processions, flower offerings, partying all night long, Buñuelos, Street Mascletà, free concerts, Falleras prancing around.
It's incredible. I will be there for Fallas 2010 - give me shout via my site if you need any information or got a question.
I bought goggles from the steampunk guy in the WGT pic. He makes awesome custom steampunk stuff. I'd post the link to his site but his business card has disappeared into the piles of gumf on my desk.
This was such a pleasure to read. I stumbled upon the page and found myself captivated. Please check out my personal blog sometime, I would love love your feedback, dear.
http://www.madisonreece.blogspot.com
so beautiful pictures! fantastic!
Of course "ninot indultat" is not spanish. It's catalan! Valencia's langue is the local variation of catalan. Even "Falla" Is a catalan word. In the catalan high pirenees, higher than 2000 m high, deep inside Catalonia, where there are plenty of 10-20 hab. villages, there's a traditional festival called "falles" to. In the summer solstice night,Villagers climb the mountain, cut a tree they have selected and taken care of during the hole year, burn it into flames, and carry it down over the shoulder back tot the village. The whole night, you see fire spots descent from the mountain. As I said, they are called "falles" to. "ninot" just means "puppet" in catalan. It's the same language, and the same country, split into two by the spaniards. The sad thing is the widespread anticatalan xenophobous ideology you can often see in Valencia.
Wonderful comments all, thank you! We will keep the info the next part of series.
Anonymous said...
------
That was the typical & out-of-place political comment of the separatist minority.
'm just wondering why photos used for the Boryeong festival all feature white people, when it's in fact a South Korean festival. I get that tourists from all over come to participate, but with it being a festival made by Koreans for Koreans, I find it odd you wouldn't showcase photos of Koreans taking part in the festivities.
Just because it's not *your* culture doesn't mean it's weird/strange.
holi is just great!
thanks for the article, now I really really want to see the color festival myself
What is really weird is this chapel. Whole made of skulls and human skeletons. Little scary.
First of all I would like to appreciate author's creativity and intelligence that inspired him to draft and publish this post. Amazing photography and incredible description.
Apart from few famous European festivals, one Asian festival I liked and that is Holi. Last summer I went to India after purchasing a pocket friendly package from an Indian travel portal called ZapBooking during Holi season and saw people playing with colors in real. Actually, people in India starts celebrating holi around one month before the final day. Small kids and adolescents take advantage of the season to tease the people and irritate them by throwing water balloons and strong colors. However, on the final day , you can see groups and hordes of people with colored faces, hands and hairs on the streets and roads celebrating the festivals and spreading the colors of joy.
It's truly an amazing festivals that people love to celebrate
Festival La Tomatina, Bunol, Spain really sound's funny. I would like to see this festival, and if I'll get a chance I will participate too.
Post a Comment
<< Home