MyWestworld

Mondo Bizarro (part 2)

Posted on 17. Jun, 2008 by Kerry Banks in Destinations

Cue the creepy electronic music. We now continue our survey of the world’s strangest festivals, starting with the Amazing Roswell UFO Festival. Located in a barren corner of southeastern New Mexico, Roswell’s claim to fame is based upon one puzzling 61-year-old event. Early in July 1947, a mysterious object crashed on a ranch north of town. The Roswell Army Air Field issued a statement claiming to have recovered a “flying disk.” An article about the crash landing ran on the front page of the Roswell Daily Record, but the next day the army changed its statement to say that the object was merely a weather balloon. This retraction sparked immediate controversy and rumours of a top-secret cover-up. Some, in fact, later reported seeing bodies of dead aliens at the local air base. The story then faded from sight, only to be revived in the early 1990s by a spate of books about “the Roswell Incident” and a TV documentary that purported to show an autopsy being performed on an alien killed in the Roswell crash. Renewed curiosity about what actually occurred in 1947 has sparked a tourism boom in Roswell. City street lamps now sport lights depicting almond-eyed ETs and the local liquor store’s sign offers “Aliens, Beer, Wine.” Meanwhile over at the International UFO Museum and Research Center, you can buy glow-in-the-dark soap, Area 51 coffee mugs, bumper stickers inscribed with the slogan “The Truth Is Out There,” and fridge magnets that say “I Believe.” 

Roswell continues to search for answers by staging an annual UFO festival at which authors and researchers dissect the infamous incident. Last year’s lecture topics included “Body Snatchers in the Desert,” “UFO Secrecy and the Death of Marilyn Monroe,” “Were Early Contactees Ritual Magicians?” and “UFOs and the Occult: Reptilian Overlords, Abductions, Mind Control and the New World Order.” The July shindig also features an alien parade, an alien costume contest, an alien motorcycle rally, an alien disc golf tournament and alien hot-air balloon rides. Some 40,000 conspiracy buffs and extraterrestrial enthusiasts attended in 2007, the equivalent of Roswell’s entire population.

Phuket Vegetarian Festival, Thailand
Every year on the first day of the ninth lunar month (usually in late September or early October), one of Thailand’s most popular beach resorts hosts the strange festival of Ngan Kin Jeh–otherwise known as the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. The festival celebrates the beginning of Taoist Lent, when devout Chinese prepare themselves by abstaining from eating meat for several days. As well they must avoid sexual intercourse, killing, quarrelling, telling lies and residing in hotels during the previous three weeks. As the nine-day festival progresses it becomes increasingly gruesome. Men and women enter trance states and walk on hot coals, climb ladders with rungs of sharpened blades and puncture their cheeks and tongues with knives, skewers and other household items. These devotees partake in daily processions through town where they stop at store front altars, drink one of nine cups of tea, and offer blessings to the merchants. The self-torture is done to shift evil from individuals to the mediums and bring the community good luck. The processions are accompanied by a parade of lion dancers, while onlookers throw firecrackers, making the entire atmosphere one of religious frenzy. The roots of the festival date back to the mid-19th century when a travelling Chinese opera company fell gravely ill. Fearing that they had let down their gods, the actors performed self-mutilation rites in an effort to cure themselves.

Mt. Hagen Festival, Papua New Guinea
Tribal warfare was a way of life in the western highlands of Papua New Guinea until the 1950s, when missionaries began to encourage different clans to reconcile their animosities by more peaceful means. The first Mt. Hagen Cultural Festival was staged in 1964. The event, which lasted about a week, brought together enemy tribes in a sort of “time out” where they could compete in competitions that involved elaborate costumes and aggressive singing and dancing. That first festival worked nicely, and the Australians decided to sponsor it as an annual event alternating years with Goroka in the eastern highlands. Over the years, word got out about the colour and exuberance of what had been intended to be a strictly a regional event, and a small trickle of out-of-area and overseas visitors began showing up. Today, it has become a major tourist draw. During two days in mid-August, more than 50 different tribal groups dressed in traditional attire come together to perform their respective songs and dances in front of roaring audiences numbering over 50,000. Drawing from an ornamental inventory developed over thousands of years, tribesmen combine feathers, grass, flowers, natural dyes, bones, shells, shiny metals to make spectacular costumes. Can you say photo-op?

Burning Man Festival, Black Rock Desert, Nevada
What began a modest beach party outside San Francisco in 1986, has since grown into an annual gathering of some 50,000 bohemians, avant-garde crazies and New Age types who swarm to a stark, arid, Nevada lakebed to dress up in outlandish costumes, share artworks, listen to music and burn a 12-metre tall effigy of a man. This “experimental community” is dedicated to self-expression, leaving all creature comforts behind and “learning self-reliance.” The “Burners” get creative, constructing their own themed camps, wacky vehicles and mind-bending art installations. The whole spectacle looks like a cross between an apocalyptic carnival and Mad Max. Attending Burning Man is a unique experience. There is no commerce at the site–no one buys anything and no-one sells anything. You must bring camping supplies, your own food and water, but toilets are provided. The temperature by day can soar to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and it can drop to freezing at night, so sometimes surviving takes a real effort. 

The Baby-Jumping Festival, Castrillo de Murcia, Spain
Look! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a flying Elvis! Each May, the Spanish village of Castillo de Murcia celebrates the Catholic festival of Corpus Christi with a bizarre event that sees men clad in gaudy Elvis-like costumes and wielding whips and truncheons, leaping over rows of helpless babies. By doing so, these devil impersonators hope to cleanse the infants of evil. The tots, all born in the proceeding year, are dressed in their finest outfits for the occasion and are lined up on a mattress for the cleansing, which is watched by crowds of revellers, and no doubt some rather anxious parents. If the babies emerge unscathed, it is supposed to signify good luck and protection from illness. The town has observed the strange ritual (called El Colacho) since 1620, and any onlookers who seem to be in need of a quick exorcism are pulled into the event–so look normal, for godsakes! And leave your babies at home with the sitter.

The Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Iron Phallus), Kawasaki, Japan
This annual ode to the penis would be slapped with an XXX rating in North America, but in Japan, a country many perceive as formal and uptight, it’s a family affair. Held in the town of Kawasaki, in early April, the festival unashamedly celebrates the penis by having people carry huge pink models of the erect organ through the streets. Images of the male member are everywhere–in illustrations, candy, carved radishes, decorations and in a parade. The event takes place at Wakamiya Hachiman-gu shrine, where prostitutes used to pray for protection from disease and business success. Today, worshippers pray for childbirth, healthy offspring, easy delivery and marital harmony. Although it may appear incompatible with religion, the underlying message of the festival–that sex is natural, beautiful, and part of life–is more about celebration than titillation. These days, the festival raises money for AIDS education and prevention, and is popular with Japanese of all ages and sexual orientations.