Stuff You Should Know - 10 Odd Town Festivals

Episode Date: November 19, 2009

The world is full of festivals, some of which are really odd. Tune in as Josh and Chuck take a playful look at ten unusual town festivals in this episode of Stuff You Should Know. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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actual interest charges on your account. Estimates are based on your posted account balance at the time of the estimate and do not include pending transactions or any other purchases you make before the end of the billing period. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as always is Charles W. Light as Morang Bryant. I've never heard that term. Light as Morang.

So you just said it before we recorded it. I think I made it up. It is light. Oh yeah. It beats light. It's a feather. That's old. Yeah.

Kidding me. So Chuck, do you remember when you started a podcast with Pumpkin Chunkin, Pumpkin Chunkin, Pumpkin Chunkin? I do remember that. We've been talking about that a lot and I don't know exactly when this podcast is coming out. I imagine it's going to be right around the time that the show, Pumpkin Chunkin and the road to Pumpkin Chunkin premieres on the Science Channel, which is the day that was formerly

known as Thanksgiving until the Science Channel took it over with Pumpkin Chunkin. Right. Now it's Pumpkin Chunkin Day. Right? Indeed. Do you have a clue what Pumpkin Chunkin is? I do. Well, let's talk about it.

Well, let's talk about a lot of unusual town festivals, Josh. That's fine with me because I've got a whole list of them right here. Let's do a podcast where you don't hear words like hippothalamus and hypochalamus and hippopotamus. Okay. Let's do a fun one. Okay. Or Clovis Police. Or Clovis Police.

I got into Clovis's argument with a guy the other day, by the way. Did you really? Did you decimate him? Yes, sort of. And he was kind of like, no, but I thought people came over from the Bering Land Bridge and I was like, well, they did, but not before Homeboy came up from South America. Exactly. Idiot.

Did you hear with your forefinger? I did. Good. So, Pumpkin Chunkin, Josh, takes place in Sussex County, Delaware, right? Am I right? Yeah. Okay. Why were you looking at me?

Well, I don't know. You looked at me like I had it wrong. No, I just zoned out for a second. And I believe it's a benefit for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital there. Yeah, I didn't know it before and I was glad to find that out. Sure, me too. Yeah. And they've been doing this since 1986.

Yeah. And they've gotten pretty serious about this, actually. Yeah. And I was staggered at how far these things go. Well, actually, the world record for a chunked pumpkin, right, is like 800 feet shy of a mile. Yeah. 4,483 feet, dude.

Right. Can you imagine seeing a pumpkin going that far? Well, you wouldn't. It'd go out of your field of vision like halfway there. I don't think you can see a pumpkin or a pumpkin go a mile. Well, if you're out in the middle of the desert or something, you probably could. Maybe. There's some pretty plowed fields around there.

Yeah. It depends on how big your pumpkin is. Right. Or what you're using. And there's actually, I think, seven different categories or seven different contests in three different categories. Right. There's centrifuges, which spin around real fast and then release them.

Okay. There is the catapult. Sure. Tried and true. And then there's the air cannons, and the air cannons are the ones that everybody shows up for. And those are the ones that win. You want to shoot a pumpkin a mile.

You use an air cannon. Right. Have you seen these things? Yeah. Go under the DMC and check it out. Yeah, yeah. I watched those. Pretty cool.

Yeah. There were some that are, what would that be called? Vehicle-based. Okay. So you drive these things up, and they look like howitzers, and they will shoot a pumpkin a mile. Wow. It's pretty cool because you think like, oh, okay, well, you know, they're going to

shoot a pumpkin out of an air cannon, and it's going to go a mile, and then we'll all break for 20 minutes and go get a drink while the next guy loads up. This year at Wheatley Farm, they shot 2,000 pumpkins. Yeah. So there's nonstop action, I would imagine. Yeah. It's pretty cool. And there's all kinds of other stuff they do.

They're like pie making contests, of course, and music. Most of these festivals that we're going to talk about have music and food ingestion as part of it. Yes. It's a festival without music and food ingestion. I don't know. It's not a festival. I don't know that we should spoil who won, because we've got the results right here.

Oh, yeah, sure. We probably shouldn't. No. So let's just not talk about that anymore. What was it they flung on? Did you used to watch Northern Exposure? Huh? What did they fling on that show?

Poo? No, they flunked. Oh, a piano. Yeah, they used like a catapult or something, right? Yeah, something like that. It was awesome. I forgot all about that. So good.

So good is the one where Chris grabbed all the lamps in town. Oh, yeah. Strung them up downtown. Yeah, yeah. He just lit the hole down. Oh, it was awesome. He was a great character. What happened to that guy?

He was. He really could have gone overboard with it, but he didn't. Okay, so that's punk and chunking. It's held in early November every year, right? In Delaware. In Delaware, right? Yes. Let's go elsewhere, Chuck.

Where would you like to go? Because we've got a bunch of these. I know that you're going to stone me for going straight to Niederland, Colorado. But why not talk about the frozen dead guy days festival? This is so weird. Yeah. Yeah. So this is an actual festival in March in Colorado.

So it's already cold. Right. Started in 1994. Is that right? Oh, no. 2002 is when the festival started, right? But its roots go back to 1994. Well, actually it goes back to 1989 when Grandpa Brado Morstal died.

Sure. And Grandpa Brado was a member of a family that was very much proponents of cryogenics. So they shipped Grandpa off to California where he was entombed cryogenically. Yeah, for four years. Right. And he, I guess, got a little homesick. His family got a little more confident that they could maintain him. And so they shipped him back in 1994.

He's been in a tough shed, TUFF brand shed since 1994. Yes. And now they have built the frozen dead guy days festival around him in his frozen body. It's been described as cryogenics, Mardi Gras. Hi, frozen body. Yeah. Nice job. And what goes on there, Josh, besides clearly some drinking is probably happening?

There is Grandpa's blue ball, which is the dance that they have every year. The Catillion, if you will. Right. They have antique hearse shows. Yeah. They have coffin races. Yeah. That's kind of fun.

Which I take to be like a toboggan races. Oh, oh, is that what that is? I think so. I mean, it's frozen. There's lots of snow. It's Colorado in early March. Sure. Sure.

So just throw some blades on a coffin and go at it. Then they have some, I guess, non-death events too, like salmon tossing. Although if you're a salmon, it's a death event. Yeah, I guess so. And frozen beach volleyball too. Yeah. I'd like to see that. Yeah.

It's just an all-around odd thing. Yeah. And they also do a polar plunge, which is if you're brave enough to jump in the lake there. I am not. You don't do that? No. Have you?

I've done that before. I did a frozen lake jump when I was in high school. Did you really? That's insane. Yeah, it was. It's one of those deals where you jump in, you can't breathe, and you run back out and warm up and tell your friends about it for the next 30 years. I'm never going to be one of those polar bear guys, so don't worry.

No, that's, I just, I don't get that. No. Okay, so Chuck. Where to next? Let's go to Montana. I like Montana. One of my best friends, Rad Smith, lives in Montana. Well, hey, Brad Smith.

Rad. What? Rad is short for Radford. Oh, okay. Hey, Radford Smith. I think he listens too. Okay. Yeah, Rad was the OG.

He was my best friend when I was like 15. Cool. And we're back in touch again, which is nice. That's all at Facebook? Yeah, originally, but then we, immediately when we found each other, we were like, let's just email like normal adults. Sure, yeah. Yeah.

E-mailing over Facebook is weird. No, I don't do that. So Chuck, we're in Montana, and we're at the Rock Creek Lodge in Clinton, Montana. Uh-huh, Clinton. I think that's how you pronounce it. Is it Clinton? I think it's just Clinton. Oh, okay.

I was doing the Kang and Kodos pronunciation. President Clinton. Right. And every year in September, they hold the Testicle Festival. Yeah. Rocky Mountain Oysters, as most people might know this by, are... Or Montana Tendergrowing. Yeah, I like that too.

This is one of the funniest festivals I've ever heard of in my life. It is. Chris Palette probably goes every year. Everyone knows that the Rocky Mountain Oyster is a nice way of saying that you eat Bull's Testicles. Right. And it's a real thing. It's a really good menu in a lot of restaurants.

Apparently, it came off of the trail, off of the cattle drive trail where, I guess, Cookie would take recently castrated Bull's Testicles and toss them in a fire. And I guess they're really easy to cook because they just pop open when they're ready. Wow. Yeah. I just got to chill. I have a confession to make. You've had them?

I have not. Oh, okay. You really want to go? I am definitely going to this next year. I want to try this. Well, plus Montana's awesome. Yeah. It looks like a great time.

What else can you do there, Josh? I know you can have... There's music, of course. There is a hairy chest contest, which is... I'm not sure what that has to do with Bull's Testicles. I guess they put hair on your chest. Yeah. I guess that makes sense.

A wet t-shirt contest, which is always fun at a Bull's Testicle contest, and a Bull Chip throwing. So I guess like a cow pie sometimes can flatten out and harden like a Frisbee. I guess it's the same thing. We can only hope so. It's a big one. There's 10,000 people that eat about 4,000 pounds of Bull's Testicles. I'll be one of them next September.

That's great. It's not the only one, though. It's not the only Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival in the U.S. There's another one in Texas, right? It is, yeah. Throckmorton, Texas. In Clinton. Throckmorton, Texas.

They do the same thing there, Josh. I know. They also, the one in Throckmorton actually has a, if you don't like Bull's Testicles, so if you're like 99% of the human population, there is a taste like chicken cook-off competition where you can cook any weird thing you want. Yeah. But if you're not into Bull's Testicles, you're probably not going to. You're not going to be in Throckmorton in May.

No. You're not going to be eating out of the taste like chicken line either. Right. Because I guarantee you, it ain't chicken. No, no, no. So that would be delightfully ironic if somebody cooked chicken for the taste like chicken competition. Is it taste like chicken?

Yes, because it is. Yeah, exactly. That's what I would say. So that's the Testicle Festival and the World Championship Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. I want to go overseas now to Spain. Do you? Spain. Okay.

Because this one is something that we podcasted on recently, the near-death experience. Yeah, yeah. There's actually the festival of near-death experience. Yes. Which is crazy. Chuck, this one is held in Fiesta de Santa Marta de Rebarmente. Nice one, Chuck. Thank you.

Which also translates to, as Chuck said, actually doesn't translate to it, but you can call it the Festival of Near-death Experiences. The way Chuck said it would be the Festival of St. Martha of Rebar Temi. Rebar Temi. Actually, I think I pronounced it wrong, but you got it right. Yeah. Rebar Temi. So, uh...

Rebar Temi. And St. Martha is actually the Saint of Death. Yeah. Right? Yeah, and this festival is actually for people specifically who have had near-death experiences. This one is... I'm glad we talked about the Frozen Dead Guy days. It's not like that.

No. Although the people who are, I guess, the celebrants or the center of this festival, the people who've had near-death experiences, are carried into the main church in the town. What is it? Las Nivas? Yeah. And in coffins. Yeah, they're carried in coffins to a service, a church service, from what I gather, where

they get up and they tell their stories to everyone. Right. Which, apparently, also sound very much alike. There's that light at the end of the tunnel, all that stuff that we talked about in the Near-death Experiences podcast. But I guess if you want to go meet a bunch of people who've died and come back, this is your chance. I think if I went as an imposter, which I'm known to do, I would be one of the whatever

small percentage of the people that had the Hellfire experience, just to spice things up. I think that's a good idea. Remember, it was a very small percentage. One percent, according to that 82-gallop poll. Yeah, because everyone's like, oh, yeah, white light, white light. Now we get up there and say, I saw fire. You get up there and go, you don't want to die. Right.

You're all doomed. I'm out of this coffin. So that is the, what's it called, say it again, Chuck. The Fiesta di Santa Marta dei Rebor Teima. Nice. Thank you. Was that Italian or Spanish accent? They're close.

Where do you want to go next, dude? Well, we can't not talk about wife-carrying. This is a lot like the healthcare podcast, the last one, where we went all over the world. Yeah, in a balloon. Yeah. But this one's far less informative and educational in nature. Yeah, let's talk about wife-carrying. So that would put us in a squarely in Finland, specifically Sonkajarve Finland.

Yeah, they have letters that don't even look like letters. They have letters that don't even exist. And it is exactly as it sounds. There's no weird play on words here. It is actually, there are races where a man picks up his wife and carries her in whatever way you choose, whatever way you think is the best way to get across the finish line. The quickest. And the one that's held in Finland is the World Championships, but these have popped

up elsewhere, including in the United States. Yeah, but the one in Finland, dude, 8,000 people attend this thing. No, it's like the one, like people who win in the United States or Hong Kong or Australia go to Finland to compete for the champs, the championships. So you would think the finish are the best at this. And actually, a couple did win the 2009, but I am want to point out they were not married. Really? As far as I know, they weren't married.

The 2009 winners were, I'm about to butcher this, Tisto McTieny, I'm so sorry, Tisto, and Christina Happening. She's one happening girl. So different last names, and it said they're cities, two different cities. There aren't many rules to this, but there are a couple, and one is that she must be over 17, over 108 pounds, meaning that she qualifies in the weight class. And if she doesn't weigh that much, they actually tie things to her to make her weigh that much.

So if a wife comes in at 100 pounds, they'll put an 8-pound weight around her waist. She's got a set of silverware around her or something. Let's talk about the methods. Actually, as I was saying, you would think the finish are the best. The Estonians are so good that they have their own method of carrying named after them. The Estonian method. And I've seen pictures, have you ever seen pictures of this? It looks like clearly the way to go, because you can do the piggyback, but everyone knows

that's not the way to go. No, because the center of gravity is lower, the weight is toward your back, the carrier's back. The Estonian method is upside down like that, right? Well, yeah. Your wife would put her legs around your head, upside down, so her face is kind of around where your lower back is, and then she'll wrap her arms around your waist. So the bulk of her weight, like the trunk and the bottom, are up on your shoulders.

Yeah, it's like a human backpack, essentially. Very much so, yes. And that's clearly the way to go, because I believe it wasn't the method used when they broke the world record. I believe so. So Estonian is definitely the style you should, if you're intent on winning, and you should intend on winning, because this one actually has a nice little prize attached. It does.

You get your wife's weight in beer. I love it. I love it, too. I would love to drink that much beer. And I imagine if she weighs less than the 108 pounds, they don't give you the weight of the silverware that she had around her waist. If she weighed 80 pounds, they probably give you 80 pounds of beer. I guess so.

But if I were in Finland, I would beef up my wife to a cool like 220 and see if I could win and get 220 pounds of beer. I'd ask if I could trade the beer in for an equal amount of vodka instead. They might do that. Maybe. That's a lot of vodka. We're exiting Finland now. Goodbye Finland.

Let's go back to Spain. We probably should have just stayed in Spain while we were there, right? Yeah, but we're racking up frequent flyer points here, so. We're going to La Tomatina in Buñal, Spain. Yeah, this is a cool one. Province of Valencia. Aka, you probably know it as the largest tomato fight in the world. Right.

And that's what it is. That's exactly what it is. It began in 1945, and not everyone's entirely certain why. Yeah, there's different theories that like these two friends got in a fight and it escalated to a food fight, and then everyone around them said, this is kind of fun. Let's food fight with them. And then that escalated to the next town over. But that doesn't sound likely to me.

No. This isn't a Fairleigh Brothers comedy. Right, exactly. But however, whatever its origin, it's been going on every year as far as I know. And for an hour on the last Wednesday of August, everybody grabs as many tomatoes as they can. Apparently 140 tons are trucked in these days, and everybody just starts whipping tomatoes at one another.

I want to do this one, man. Oh, yeah. I would turn on you like that. Oh, are you kidding me? Before they said go, you would have a tomato in my face? I would not. Or you would bring in your own rotten tomatoes? I would not.

Yeah, you would. I wouldn't. I would. Oh, that's me I was thinking of. Oh, okay. I would do that. And it sounds like a lot of fun. Well, yeah.

I mean, it's a huge tomato fight that lasts an hour. So that is La Tomatina, which takes place when Chuck, the last Wednesday of August, right? Yeah. And it's pretty dang popular. 20,000 strong. It's a lot of tomatoes thrown. Yeah.

Chuck, our last stop, you could call a whistle stop. Yes. If you were a jerk who liked to make stupid jokes, you would call it a whistle stop, wouldn't you? Yeah. What is it? Laguna Niguel, California. Yeah.

Laguna Niguel. It's in Southern California. Well, not all of us have lived in California. Well, I'm sorry. So Chuck, ever since 1980, once a year, and I think it's in July, right? Yeah. I'm surprised I haven't heard of this. Once a year, people line up along the railroad tracks, along the side, not actually on the

railroad tracks. That would be hands across America. And they moon passing Amtrak trains. Yes. And for those of you who don't know what mooning is, that is a practice of pulling down your pants and showing somebody your butt. Your bottom. It is an old tradition.

I wonder where mooning started. I have no idea. Oh, that's a yum. But at one point or another, if you're growing up in high school, you probably moon somebody at some point, pressed ham. Would you like to hear my mooning story? I figured you had one. Well, yeah.

Yeah, let's hear it. So in sixth grade, I was a crossing guard, as most sixth graders were. Okay. And I was at one post, bored. Okay. And at the other end, my flask was dry. At the other end of the block were a couple of girls, both of whom I was friends with and liked.

And I was like Kelly Joellen, and they looked over and I mooned them. All right. And they started screaming and pointing and telling everyone who had listened that I'd just mooned them. And I'm like, no, shut up. Shut up. Yeah, mooning is private. Long story short, I end up in the principal's office and I lose my right to go to Cedar

Point as the sixth grade class trip that year. Ah, you're kidding me. No. And I got kicked off the crossing guard, which is actually my point, because I was tired of being a crossing guard. You know what? That's a crappy punishment. Your principal is a jerk.

Yes. You should have just kicked you off the crossing guard, but did not let you go to Cedar Point. No, I agree. That's cruel. It seemed a little much. This is the same principal, though, who was about to paddle me once. And as she was getting the paddle down, I was like, I think you might want to call my parents first.

Oh, really? And she was like, what, and called my parents and my mom was like, you do not hit my child with the paddle. Yes. You're a little younger than me. And I was like, I'm indulged. Capital punishment was kind of on its way out when you were coming around. She had the paddles.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, my dad was my principal, as you know, so. I know. And I'll bet he paddled you relentlessly. He paddled me one time in school as principal. Wow. Yeah.

I guess it kind of had to do that just to, you know, say, I'm not above doing this. Yeah. Isn't that crazy to think about now, though, the principal actually hitting your child with wood? Yeah. It seems like something from the 18th century. Yeah. And they even had, like, manufactured paddles with, like, the air holes drilled in them.

Yeah. So that, like, there was less drag. I know. That's what he had. Yeah. This is all taped up, too. What is wrong with the older generations? I don't know, man.

They're all nuts. It is weird to think about. And they're about to put a huge strain on our healthcare system. Thanks a lot for that. So back to Mooning, every year since 1980, they do that for some reason. And the police have good humor about it. They let it go as long as you don't take it too far and you don't, like, expose other body parts.

They say you can moon the trains and they moon every train that goes by. Is that right? Yes. As far as I know. Uh-huh. And the cops are there. Just to make sure it's peaceful. Well, in 2008, no, to make sure people don't show their genitals.

Well, and make sure it's peaceful. In 2008, the party got broken up because apparently people were like, it's not enough to bear my bottom. Well, just get naked. Yeah. And that's not it. Hey, man. It's Mooning to go.

California. Yeah. So I'm stripping down to nothing but my Tivas. Yeah. When was that? 2008? That they said enough's enough. Yeah.

And I like their website. There's a series of questions like, you know, what, what, you know, when, where, why, that kind of thing. And there's one that says who's in charge and the answer is no one. Right. No one organizes or is responsible for this annual event. You just show up and pull your pants down. Yeah.

Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So if you happen to be there in Laguna Niguel, not to be confused with Laguna Niguel, it's sister city elsewhere on July 10th, 2010, you just ask where the Amtrak Mooning party is. Yes. Yeah.

So boy, this is a good one. So Chuck. I feel like it. We're all just a little smarter. I've got some places I want to go. Yeah. Me too. Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival.

Yeah. Yeah. No. I'll just drop me off in Laguna Niguel and I'll be mooning trains. Okay. Okay. That's good. So that is unusual town festivals.

And actually, if you type in festivals in the search bar at howstuffworks.com, it will bring up all manner of stuff. Yes. There's some pretty good stuff on there. And we're anticipating a million emails about your town's festival too. Yes, we are. Which you just saved me the ending. Yeah.

So Chuck, let's get just right into listening to the mail, shall we? Gosh, I'm just going to call this, I'm going to call this boarding school email and it made me laugh. Gone wrong? No. Gone right. This is from Natalie in Massachusetts and sometimes you just get these emails that are just kind of cute and you just think I'll just read it with the heck.

Okay. Guys, I'm a boarding high school student in Massachusetts. I sent an email a few months back about listening to podcasts at camp and now I listen during silent study at my school, I have silent study from seven. Is this your Natalie impression? Yeah, sure. Okay. From 73930 and to make things interesting, I listened to your podcast and it's a highlight

of my day. I'm currently listening to the podcast that came out today and I feel so much cooler than my roommate who is listening to the Pussycat Dolls. Oh yeah. So good for you. We are definitely cooler than the Pussycat Dolls, I assure you. You guys are way cooler than them. Yeah.

See? She just said so. I love podcasts on science, history, and music but the economy and politics are not my fave, something you seem to enjoy. Josh, why do you want to chew on babies? Sorry for the interjection there, haha. He clearly doesn't really want to chew on babies. It's just that gnaw like, yeah, that kind of thing.

Now I supply my English teacher with extra credit questions with things I learned from the podcast and I got the chance to teach the class and taught them about MK Ultra. Awesome. Pretty cool. So could you give me a shout out on the podcast so I can show the girls in my dorm how awesome I am? This is the shout out, Natalie. That would be the highlight of my life, which is kind of depressing, other than the time

I saw a ghost. Well, Natalie is just full of stuff, isn't she? Yeah, I'm going to tell my ghost story at some other point but I did see a ghost once. Okay. I'm going to save that one for our ghost podcast. The weekend activity a few weeks ago was a ghost hunter who uncovered a ghost in the history wing suggestion ghost hunters is what she says. Yeah, we're not going to do ghost hunters, we'll do ghosts.

I have a ghost story too. And then she just followed that by saying that was spontaneous. This girl's adorable. I do not know how that train of thought went. Thank you for reading my rambling. You have one Twinkie points. Natalie from Massachusetts. Nice, Natalie.

Natalie clearly has a firm grasp on her stream of consciousness. She does. Yeah. Well, if you have a firm grasp on your stream of consciousness or you've ever seen the film Drugstore Cowboy, you can send us an email to StuffPodcast at HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Want more HowStuffWorks? Check out our blogs on the HowStuffWorks.com homepage.

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