1. Running of the Bulls, Spain

The focal point of the festivities is the bracing daily test of courage against a pack of 500-kilogram fighting bulls thundering through San Fermin's cobbled streets.

At 8:00am crowds of people race with six bulls, charging along a winding 850-metre course through narrow streets to the city's bull ring.

Last year 50 people were taken to hospital, including an Australian woman who had been gored by a bull.

Hundreds of people are injured each year - usually from falling to the ground in the commotion - while more than a dozen are believed to have died since record-keeping began.

The festival grew out of a need to transport the bulls from where they were kept in town to the bullring. Young men would often follow them to demonstrate their bravery.

2. Onbashira Festival, Japan

Every six years in April and May, huge logs are selected from trees in mountain forests in the Lake Suwa region and transported by hand to the smaller shrines of Suwa Taisha.

Part of the journey includes Kiotoshi, where local men climb aboard the logs and endeavour to stay on as they slide down the steep mountainside.

Injuries and deaths have occurred during the festival in past years, though being killed by one of the trees is considered to be an honourable death.

The festival is next due to be held in 2016.


3. Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival, Taiwan

Common sense dictates that, most of the time, you should not stand in the way of a lit firecracker.

But on the 15th day of the first lunar month, tens of thousands of participants flock to Yanshui in western Taiwan to do just that.

The event - during which beehive firecrackers are set off among a crowd of spectators - commemorates a cholera epidemic more than a century ago, with a customary belief that being bombed by the firecrackers wards off bad luck.

Participants are encouraged to wear a scarf around their neck to stop rockets shooting up under their helmets.

4. Takanakuy, Peru

In Australia, December 25 is generally oriented around family: spending time together, sharing gifts and giving thanks.

In Peru's Chumbivilcas province, it's all about getting even - and using your fists to do it.

A centuries-old custom, Takanakuy - which means "to hit each other" - involves large numbers of participants punching-on in an attempt to settle old scores and conflicts from the past year.

Participants generally dress in traditional Andean outfits. Kicking and punching are allowed; biting and hair-pulling are not.

Having such festivals in nigeria will even be better..this one is not all about drinking alomo, and start to move about the streets with masqurades

5. El Colacho, Spain

In this festival, held in the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia, men dressed as the devil jump over babies born in the past year, who lie on mattresses in the street.

Baby jumping is a traditional practice, taking place annually to mark the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi.

Luckily, there have not been any serious injuries to babies in the festival's history.

6. Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, England

In the past, this festival featured activities such as bobbing for apples and shin-kicking.

Nowadays, all that remains is the downhill rolling of a handmade, three-kilogram circle of Double Gloucester cheese - and the chase to claim it.

Cooper's Hill is almost vertical at certain points, so participants are more likely to tumble rather than run in the race to grab the cheese.

The festival holds five cheese chases starting at noon on the last Monday of each May.


7. Takeuchi Festival, Japan

After the romance of Valentine's Day, hundreds of men in the town of Rokugo gather for a manly clash between the north and the south.

About 200 men on opposing teams battle it out every February 15 by whacking each other with six-metre bamboo poles.

The battle is played over three rounds, with the stakes raised in the final round when the poles are set alight by a bonfire.

It is believed that if team north wins there will be a good harvest, and if team south wins the price of rice will increase.

8. Hadaka Festival, Japan

More than 9,000 men dress in nothing but traditional loincloths for the Hadaka, or Naked Man, Festival.

The festival occurs in several locations throughout Japan, but the biggest one is held at the Saidai-ji Temple.

At midnight on the third Saturday of February, the men compete over a pair of sacred sticks and other fortune items in the hopes they will be blessed with a year of happiness.

And although the festivities occur in winter, participants warm themselves up beforehand by drinking copious amounts of sake, Japan's alcoholic beverage of choice.

9. Battle of the Oranges, Italy

This festival uses fruit-based warfare to symbolise the medieval battle between the nobility and the people.

The two groups are represented in this fight - which takes place during carnivale in the town of Ivrea - by the orange throwers, with their wagon and body armour, and the people on the ground.

Each hurls oranges at the other. Bruises and injuries are common given the toughness of the fruit's exterior.

10. La Tomatina, Spain

Tens of thousands of people gather in Bunol on the last Wednesday of August each year for the mother of all food fights.

The fight is thought to have its beginnings in a food fight between children during a parade in the mid-1940s.

More than 100,000 kilograms of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown throughout the streets during this festival.

And while the official rules state the ammunition must be squashed before launch, this rule is not strictly observed.



http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-10/ten-dangerous-festivals-around-world/5579080

When people have been over-fed, what do you expect?

Naija, where hunger has become the middle name of some people they can't take part in an unnecessary life threatening festival.

Trust Yoruba people, life is precious.

lol

Ok

For Naija, nah durin campaign u go see many crazy, life treathening cerebration, it's durin this period one will realise that Nigerians have talented motorist(most times i ask myself why avn't we av a Nigerian formula one winner). Nah durin this period u go see okada man flying in the air for minutes without fearing death.. Naija i hail thee

Only a foolish woman will agree to number 5. Devil ko winch ni

GAZZUZZ: Only a foolish woman will agree to number 5. Devil ko winch ni

that number 5 is very risky to those babies, if any mistake should occur, those babies will be goners.