Hey! Thanks for mentioning Latvia. We have a ton of other mamazing traditions. One of them the song and dance festival where 40 000 people come together to sing and dance our national folk songs and dances. It's really amazing! :)
As an added thing to what John said about deaf thoughts, the way grammar and phrasing works (at least in ASL) is different than in regular English. For instance, when someone who is hearing would say they tend to do something, a deaf person would say they "bing" to do something. This is due to the hand shape and mouth motions paired with the sign for "tend to," so when a person who uses sign language is writing, they frequently use things like that in conversations, as well as using their grammar rather than ours. (Extra words like "is", "the", and "it" are often dropped and word order is shifted so time indicators are first, followed by the subject).
I'm so excited about this week's question. My parents are both Deaf and I've asked them this question a couple times. They didn't know how to describe it. I'm glad that a couple of my assumptions were correct: that Deaf people think in images or see hand signs. I'll definitely be telling them about this. This is super awesome.
How did you miss the Frozen Dead Guy festival in Nederland, Colorado? A three day party at the end of winter celebrating an 89 year old grandfather "cyrogenically" frozen in a Tuff-Shed by his son. The city now supplies the dry ice.
There are some awesome Australian traditions that are worth mentioning, including: The beer can regatta in Darwin where people build boats out of empty beer cans and race them, and the Henley-on-Todd regatta held in Alice Springs. This is a unique boat race as there is no water. Rather than sailing competitors work in teams and run around the course carrying large boat shaped objects. The birdman competition is also popular in parts of Australia but that started in the UK.
Piteå, Sweden had the first pedestrian only street in Sweden as well as the first city festival. We're also known for a football (soccer) tournament of ~16.000 teenagers every year called Piteå Summer Games. That is a lot of players especially considering the town only has ~22.000 inhabitants.
DigitalCoffeeBrewer Pretty sure it's more of a creeper-ish fear.. at least, that's what it is for me.. they seem like creepers or pedophiles or whatever @n@
It's a basic human fear I suppose, the fear of strangers combined with the playful attitude and the fact they "hide" their real persona behind make up, unconsciously those things combined may trigger alarms ion your brain, and for some people it gets out of control.
@@DigitalCoffeeBrewer It’s a relatively new fear stemming from the mass murderer: John Wayne Gacy who used to dress up as a clown for unsuspecting victims. Then authors transformed this famous murderer into an icon: Pennywise the Clown.
Gonna admit, I spent the majority of this hoping that there would be one from Canada listed. I mean, I don't know of any particularly weird traditions from Canada but Canadians get super excited to year about our country generally.
I did the same for Switzerland, and we actually have a weird tradition! Once a year, people dress up in slightly mediaeval clothing, parade around town and then at 6pm, we light a giant heap of wood in the middle of town, with a snowman made out of paper (or something, not entirely sure about this part) and fireworks in the head, while people on horses ride around it. The faster the head explodes, the sooner summer will come. I want recognition! We have weird traditions too! T-T
I was hoping to hear about mummering in Newfoundland! It's when groups of people dress in silly costumes and go around to people's houses to play music during Christmas. So much fun!
We have this weird tradition in my hometown where on Halloween at 10pm, we take a wooden outhouse and drop it/break it in the middle of the one stop light intersection that we have. I think it started as a prank by students, and then adults were like "well, if they're going to do it, might as well help them do it safely."
Imagine moving your left arm. Now imagine moving your left arm and making your fingers into a shape. If you thought in your muscle memory, it'd be like remembering these movements as a language! Not much different from remembering sentence structures, voices and words.
Trivia was great (as usual) but the tag question about the language of those born deaf was the most interesting...would love to see a whole video on that...Sci Show maybe, or just on Vlogbrothers.
i loved the explanation of my hometown's tradition... i see they chose to leave out the part about how Eeyore's Birthday Party is the hallucinogenic drug holiday of Austin, and how it's celebrated on the weekend closest to 4/20 every year :) No but for real, it's a really fun event that happens in a really big park that stretches across the northern-central part of the city. There are bands that play and fun booths and stuff for kids and families, but many young adults & non-parents come to buy glass-blown art (aka mostly pipes & bongs, but some other stuff too!) by local glass artists, and many people dress up in psychedelic costumes! There are usually lots of big drum circles and hippy-types walking around barefoot. It's a good time :)
When referring to logging bucking is a term for cutting a log into shorter sections which can be useful for ease of transportation or for its final use eg firewood.
It's a blast and it's surprisingly family friendly. I went last year, I ate some pot brownies that an old lady gave me and got my face painted like Spiderman.
John I think you were referring to Woodstock '94, that was the one with mud. Woodstock '99 was the one with the epic riot and fires. And I did enjoy both that concert and your joke.
Well, he said Woodstock 99 and he stated that the his audience would not get the reference. It is far more likely that his audience would know about what happened at the original historic event of Woodstock as opposed to two completely commercial events in the 90's. John, however, would have been in his teens and early twenties in the 90's. I also would wager that he is more likely to have gotten the year within a decade wrong as opposed to the entire decade wrong. The 94 concert was notable for the rains that turned the fields at the venue to mud, the 99 concert, however, was extremely hot and dry. The only mud to be found was coming out from under the porta-potties and the showers. In the movie about the original Woodstock I can not recall any mention or images of people playing in the mud also. So I certainly feel the evidence points to him referring to the 94 concert and not 99 or 69.
You wont see it in the movie - but you will see it in the photos - likely because everyone was naked at the one in 69. I have always thought that his audience was younger...
Cerēju kad John's pieminēt Latvija's Līgo vakaru tradicijas. Es domāju kad ugunslekšana vai paparžu meklēšana būt labākas tradicijas lai pieminēt. Vienalga... Woo! Latvija!
Tā ir gan...varbū Līgo nav gan pietiekam specifisks, bet es domāju vairāk par tām tradicijām. Es domāju tieš par ko mēs, kā Latvieši, daram Līgo vakarā. Nezinu...varbūt ir gan citas kulturas kuri ari lec pāri unugam saulgriežu vakarā. Beigu beigās esmu tikai priecīga kad John's pieminēja Latviju.
60psych Hank was a male Pinta Island tortoise, and the last known individual of the subspecies. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world. Hank served as a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos Islands and throughout the world.
Always wanted to try cheese rolling.. Not everyday you get the chance to flail down a hill with people actually having taken safety precautions(like having people down there to catch you).
Necks, arms, legs, fingers, toes, noses, what have you... it's like a 400 car pile-up at the bottom of that hill and every ambulance in the district is lined up to take them off to Casualty Ward.
I live just out side of Fruita Colorado. It was really cool that you mentioned our weird festival. I used to work in the coffee shop on the main drag, in front of which sits the official "Mike the headless chicken" statue. As part of my barista duties I was required to recount the life story of Mike to all who inquired. You did him justice but failed to mention that the farmer and his rooster traveled all around the mountain west displaying Mike as a sideshow oddity. Good job on saying the name of the town (Fruita= fruit+a), most non-locals pronounce each of the vowels Froo-ee-ta, it's easy to spot a tourist.
Two suggestions for additions. In Cuyuna, MN every year, they hold the annual wood tick races where they actually race wood ticks. In Aitkin, MN, they hold a fish house parade where people pull their ice fishing houses down main street and are judged on a variety of different criteria.
50ftFrankenstein The offending ingredient in toothpaste that temporarily messes up your taste buds is a surfactant called Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, or SLS. The only reason that component is there is to make the toothpaste foam up when agitate... and non-foamy toothpastes don't sell. :P It is possible to find SLS-free toothpaste, but they are a niche item, hard to find.
In Abingdon, England, there is an annual bun throwing where officials throw buns from the top of the town hall. In Oxford, England there's a tradition of jumping off a certain bridge but I can't remember why. It's a thing that uni students/young adults tend to do. And I'm pretty sure there's cheese rolling in several places in England.
by supporting local businesses. There are a lot of people who don't know that's what Keep Austin Weird means. The other thing we have to do is stop Portland from stealing our damn motto!
You left out one of the coolest traditions ever! At midnight on Easter Sunday two church congregations in Vrontados on the Greek island, Chios fire thousands of rockets at each others church towers with the aim of hitting the opposing church's bell.
Got really excited to hear Corpus Christi mentioned even if it wasn't to note any of our strange local traditions, the likes of which I'm not sure we have.
Physiologically, it's caused by oxytocin withdrawal. Evolutionarily, it's because if people miss us, they're motivated to come looking if we're gone, which is good for our survival as a whole.
I live in a town called Ottery St. Mary in the UK and every year on the 5th November we celebrate Tar Barrels which involves people running with barrels filled with tar on their backs up and down the streets. Oh yeah... these barrels are also set on fire.
In my hometown we have a festival called the burryman. Where a man walks round the town for several hours covered from head to toe in spikey burrs and if you go out and see him you can get one of his burrs.
Ashbourne, Derbyshire also has a several thousand person football match, where each half of the town tries to get it to the others side :) Derbyshire also has the wells dressing, where the wells in the county are decorated with designs made up of flower petals
In Denmark there is a festival called Festelavn, and one of the traditions was to put a black cat in a barrel, hang the barrel like a pinata, let the children form a queue and have them take take turns to beat the barrel with a stick until it bursts(the barrel, not the cat; even though I'm pretty sure the cat wasn't to happy about this either). Nowadays they don't put cats into the barrel anymore (it is filled with candy) but there still is a cat painted on it in memory of that tradition.
I'd like to add one: the annual Blueberry Arts Slug Race in Ketchikan Alaska. Seriously, it's more interesting than it sounds. Kids 12 and under have the opportunity to capture a slug and enter it in the races for a chance to win prizes from sponsors. Ketchikan is home to a variety of large slug species, some of which are surprisingly quick, others of which are... sluggish. The kids who take it seriously hunt down good physical specimens from the quick species, while the ones who phone it in end up watching their entry just sit at the starting line.
In my hometown in NS, Canada there is an annual giant pumpkin race in which people paddle across a lake in hollowed out giant pumpkins painted and decorated in all kinds of ways.
Someone might have already said this but the Kinetic sculpture race started because a local artist named Hobart brown had a sculpture made out of a friend's child's bike an was told by the authorities that he had to remove the eyesore and he decided to race the thing down Main Street to the dump and had such a fun time he started challenging other artists to sculpture races and people still carry it on
I've been to the Cheese Rolliing Festival. You'd think after so many years of hosting it, someone would arrange for portapotties, knowing thousands of people show up, but no. Just the one toilet at the convenience store near the hill, or you could take your chances in the woods.
No mention of Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado? Various events include coffin racing, ice turkey bowling, a parade of hearses, and a frozen salmon toss.
Wow, I'm surprised Burning man isn't on the list. Weird kinetic sculptures, Massive art cars, And A massive temple that is burned down to the ground every year. It's awesome.
Haha, I live in Gloucester which is where the cheese rolling event happens, was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video and the first thing you mentioned
Hey! Thanks for mentioning Latvia. We have a ton of other mamazing traditions. One of them the song and dance festival where 40 000 people come together to sing and dance our national folk songs and dances. It's really amazing! :)
As an added thing to what John said about deaf thoughts, the way grammar and phrasing works (at least in ASL) is different than in regular English. For instance, when someone who is hearing would say they tend to do something, a deaf person would say they "bing" to do something. This is due to the hand shape and mouth motions paired with the sign for "tend to," so when a person who uses sign language is writing, they frequently use things like that in conversations, as well as using their grammar rather than ours. (Extra words like "is", "the", and "it" are often dropped and word order is shifted so time indicators are first, followed by the subject).
I'm so excited about this week's question. My parents are both Deaf and I've asked them this question a couple times. They didn't know how to describe it. I'm glad that a couple of my assumptions were correct: that Deaf people think in images or see hand signs. I'll definitely be telling them about this. This is super awesome.
My mom is deaf, and that answer at the end was absolutely spot-on! Great video, John (and the rest of the Mental Floss team)!
How did you miss the Frozen Dead Guy festival in Nederland, Colorado? A three day party at the end of winter celebrating an 89 year old grandfather "cyrogenically" frozen in a Tuff-Shed by his son. The city now supplies the dry ice.
There are some awesome Australian traditions that are worth mentioning, including:
The beer can regatta in Darwin where people build boats out of empty beer cans and race them,
and the Henley-on-Todd regatta held in Alice Springs. This is a unique boat race as there is no water. Rather than sailing competitors work in teams and run around the course carrying large boat shaped objects.
The birdman competition is also popular in parts of Australia but that started in the UK.
Mind-Blowing Question: What was the greatest thing *before* sliced bread?
Betty White.
Darude - Sandstorm
Most likely torn bread. Bread would most likely have been eaten by the loaf or else torn into pieces before accurate cutlery became available.
Betty White. It's a technicality look it up
swordsandsirens Ya beat me to it.
Piteå, Sweden had the first pedestrian only street in Sweden as well as the first city festival. We're also known for a football (soccer) tournament of ~16.000 teenagers every year called Piteå Summer Games. That is a lot of players especially considering the town only has ~22.000 inhabitants.
The parade of 1000 clowns sounds... utterly terrifying.
I don't understand fear of clowns. I don't find them funny, but I don't see why they are terrifying. Anyone care to explain?
DigitalCoffeeBrewer Pretty sure it's more of a creeper-ish fear.. at least, that's what it is for me.. they seem like creepers or pedophiles or whatever @n@
It's a basic human fear I suppose, the fear of strangers combined with the playful attitude and the fact they "hide" their real persona behind make up, unconsciously those things combined may trigger alarms ion your brain, and for some people it gets out of control.
DigitalCoffeeBrewer comes from children seeing clowns, and when they grow up, the fear sticks for the rest of the life
@@DigitalCoffeeBrewer It’s a relatively new fear stemming from the mass murderer: John Wayne Gacy who used to dress up as a clown for unsuspecting victims. Then authors transformed this famous murderer into an icon: Pennywise the Clown.
You should also look for the "Corsa dei Ceri" of Gubbio... people carries running 4m tall statues in tiny medieval streets.
Gonna admit, I spent the majority of this hoping that there would be one from Canada listed.
I mean, I don't know of any particularly weird traditions from Canada but Canadians get super excited to year about our country generally.
I did the same for Switzerland, and we actually have a weird tradition!
Once a year, people dress up in slightly mediaeval clothing, parade around town and then at 6pm, we light a giant heap of wood in the middle of town, with a snowman made out of paper (or something, not entirely sure about this part) and fireworks in the head, while people on horses ride around it. The faster the head explodes, the sooner summer will come. I want recognition! We have weird traditions too! T-T
We do have pride festivals and parades but that isn't weird? Places all over the world have pride festivals and parades.
Accidentally posted twice because the youtube app is weird
***** There are Pride parades all over the world.
I was hoping to hear about mummering in Newfoundland! It's when groups of people dress in silly costumes and go around to people's houses to play music during Christmas. So much fun!
We have this weird tradition in my hometown where on Halloween at 10pm, we take a wooden outhouse and drop it/break it in the middle of the one stop light intersection that we have. I think it started as a prank by students, and then adults were like "well, if they're going to do it, might as well help them do it safely."
It's not just the cheese going 70mph, it's everyone falling down the hill too.
Congratulations on one million!!!!
I have been here since the beginning and I love how it has so many subscribers!!
Here's to the second million :)
Thinking in muscle memory... That sounds awesome! Can't really wrap my head around it though!
Imagine moving your left arm. Now imagine moving your left arm and making your fingers into a shape. If you thought in your muscle memory, it'd be like remembering these movements as a language! Not much different from remembering sentence structures, voices and words.
That was a really good mind-blowing question.
"Admittedly I'm not an elephant" belongs on a t-shirt
Trivia was great (as usual) but the tag question about the language of those born deaf was the most interesting...would love to see a whole video on that...Sci Show maybe, or just on Vlogbrothers.
My Great Uncle won the cheese rolling twice. That is my naff claim to fame.
And you're probably still eating that cheese. :p
Totally not a mind-blowing question, but it's awesome to hear John Green acknowledge my home town of Corpus Christi, TX. DFTBA, Corpus Christi!
i loved the explanation of my hometown's tradition... i see they chose to leave out the part about how Eeyore's Birthday Party is the hallucinogenic drug holiday of Austin, and how it's celebrated on the weekend closest to 4/20 every year :)
No but for real, it's a really fun event that happens in a really big park that stretches across the northern-central part of the city. There are bands that play and fun booths and stuff for kids and families, but many young adults & non-parents come to buy glass-blown art (aka mostly pipes & bongs, but some other stuff too!) by local glass artists, and many people dress up in psychedelic costumes! There are usually lots of big drum circles and hippy-types walking around barefoot. It's a good time :)
Thanks so much John. I just recently became a "nerdfighter" (as you put it) last week. Keep up the greatness, on TH-cam and otherwise! And DFTBA!
You ate the whole wheel of cheese? I'm not even mad. I'm impressed!
When referring to logging bucking is a term for cutting a log into shorter sections which can be useful for ease of transportation or for its final use eg firewood.
Eeyore's birthday celebration? Must attend!
I'm from Austin. We have gone several times. It's fantastic. May poles, egg tosses, drum circles, naked people... It's great.
It's a blast and it's surprisingly family friendly. I went last year, I ate some pot brownies that an old lady gave me and got my face painted like Spiderman.
It's basically a hippy festival, lots of pot and drum circles
sam myrick Is there pin the tail on the Eeyore too?
why didn't he put a quarter into the porkchop party fund when he mentioned "Porkchop, Austria"?
John I think you were referring to Woodstock '94, that was the one with mud. Woodstock '99 was the one with the epic riot and fires. And I did enjoy both that concert and your joke.
Fairly certain he was referring to the original one...in 1969. I feel sad now for some reason.
Well, he said Woodstock 99 and he stated that the his audience would not get the reference. It is far more likely that his audience would know about what happened at the original historic event of Woodstock as opposed to two completely commercial events in the 90's. John, however, would have been in his teens and early twenties in the 90's. I also would wager that he is more likely to have gotten the year within a decade wrong as opposed to the entire decade wrong. The 94 concert was notable for the rains that turned the fields at the venue to mud, the 99 concert, however, was extremely hot and dry. The only mud to be found was coming out from under the porta-potties and the showers. In the movie about the original Woodstock I can not recall any mention or images of people playing in the mud also. So I certainly feel the evidence points to him referring to the 94 concert and not 99 or 69.
You wont see it in the movie - but you will see it in the photos - likely because everyone was naked at the one in 69.
I have always thought that his audience was younger...
John, I also enjoyed the Woodstock '99 joke, thanks for bringing back the memories!
CONGRATS ON 1,000,000 SUBS!
John is my hero, and the peep joke was the icing on the cake
I've lived 40 km from Riga my entire life and never heard of the blond parade o.O
Pain Foinmr Laikam tāpēc arī nezinu -.- TV nelietoju :D
Pats esmu dzirdējis, bet neesmu redzējis.
Cerēju kad John's pieminēt Latvija's Līgo vakaru tradicijas.
Es domāju kad ugunslekšana vai paparžu meklēšana būt labākas tradicijas lai pieminēt.
Vienalga... Woo! Latvija!
Elleari Ligo ir savs kolorīts ar unikālam tradīcijām, bet tas gan ir vel vieni solstīcijas svētki, kuru pasaulē ir miljons.
Tā ir gan...varbū Līgo nav gan pietiekam specifisks, bet es domāju vairāk par tām tradicijām. Es domāju tieš par ko mēs, kā Latvieši, daram Līgo vakarā. Nezinu...varbūt ir gan citas kulturas kuri ari lec pāri unugam saulgriežu vakarā. Beigu beigās esmu tikai priecīga kad John's pieminēja Latviju.
In Thailand, they had a thing called Monkey Ball Soup. No, not made out of monkeys
The bodypainting festival in austria was held in porkchop? Did I hear that right? Does that mean the staff porkchop fund is a quarter short?
I was sure I heard the same! :o
I heard that, too, but apparently it's called Pörtschach. Close enough, though, right? XD
It's spelled Pörtschach
That was easily the best Mind-Blowing Question in this show's history!
Mind-blowing question: Why hasn't Hank done another quiz? You're great and all, but we were promised monthly quizzes.
What the eff is Hank?
60psych its WHO the eff is hank
60psych Hank is John Green's brother
60psych Hank was a male Pinta Island tortoise, and the last known individual of the subspecies. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world. Hank served as a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos Islands and throughout the world.
Hank is a hard reddish-brown timber from a tropical tree, used for high-quality furniture.
Oh my gosh, Mental Floss reached one million subscribers!!! That's awesome!
Always wanted to try cheese rolling.. Not everyday you get the chance to flail down a hill with people actually having taken safety precautions(like having people down there to catch you).
...people break necks doing it on a regular basis. Police tried to stop it one year but they went ahead anyway.
Necks, arms, legs, fingers, toes, noses, what have you... it's like a 400 car pile-up at the bottom of that hill and every ambulance in the district is lined up to take them off to Casualty Ward.
I live just out side of Fruita Colorado. It was really cool that you mentioned our weird festival. I used to work in the coffee shop on the main drag, in front of which sits the official "Mike the headless chicken" statue. As part of my barista duties I was required to recount the life story of Mike to all who inquired. You did him justice but failed to mention that the farmer and his rooster traveled all around the mountain west displaying Mike as a sideshow oddity. Good job on saying the name of the town (Fruita= fruit+a), most non-locals pronounce each of the vowels Froo-ee-ta, it's easy to spot a tourist.
No mention of the straw goat that is raised every year in Gävle, Sweden?
Thought that would make the list...
jokurandomnimi Yep, arson sure is hilarious stuff.
As always, Mental Floss, thank you. My nerd quotient for the day has been met and it's not even 9am.
John, if you ever join a peep eating contest, you'd better hope that Curt doesn't show up.
These are some great traditions. I've always wanted to visit the Sapporo Snow Festival. Soon...
Puff levels are high.
He was likely stressing about his trip to Africa and all the shots...
Oh, you were talking about his hair. For a moment I thought you were being homophobic.
*sigh*
That truly WAS a mindblowing question. Loved it.
How much money is in the staff pork chop party fund?
Thank you for answering that mind blowing question! I've been wondering for years!
Hey Meredith, as a writer for MF, have you considered hosting an episode sometime? i think you'd be great
Agreed, I'd love to see an episode with Meredith.
Augustine Lee Marta Bearr Mental Floss Yeah, totally, I'd love to see that!
Ingledpsrsproncipiantr
I love Mental Floss!
is it just me, or does john seem younger in this one?
17 & 19 are festivals from my childhood. Brings back some great memories!!!!
Yeah Yorkshire.
Yeah Fiore
Yeah fruita
Two suggestions for additions. In Cuyuna, MN every year, they hold the annual wood tick races where they actually race wood ticks. In Aitkin, MN, they hold a fish house parade where people pull their ice fishing houses down main street and are judged on a variety of different criteria.
Hi mental floss,
this week, by " mind blowing question" is why does orange juice taste so disgusting after brushing my teeth?
The toothpaste blocks the receptors on your tongue that detect sweetness leaving you with the taste of straight up citrus.
50ftFrankenstein The offending ingredient in toothpaste that temporarily messes up your taste buds is a surfactant called Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, or SLS. The only reason that component is there is to make the toothpaste foam up when agitate... and non-foamy toothpastes don't sell. :P It is possible to find SLS-free toothpaste, but they are a niche item, hard to find.
Trevor Mettam Interesting, I'll have to look that up, but I suspect that it will be more expensive than is practical.
Such a a Huge waste of food. 🤨🤬
FEED THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HUNGRY!!!!
DARBYSHIRE JOHN!
Please say it right
Well he is the first American to pronounce Yorkshire right so I'll give him that xD.
I hate that so much xD
He has Tennant hair! You go John Green!
Suomi mainittu! Torilla tavataan!
All I know is that you said Finland in that. The most finnish I know is Suomi which is Finland.
Atte Kaipainen thank you.
In Abingdon, England, there is an annual bun throwing where officials throw buns from the top of the town hall.
In Oxford, England there's a tradition of jumping off a certain bridge but I can't remember why. It's a thing that uni students/young adults tend to do.
And I'm pretty sure there's cheese rolling in several places in England.
You have to keep Austin weird.
by supporting local businesses. There are a lot of people who don't know that's what Keep Austin Weird means. The other thing we have to do is stop Portland from stealing our damn motto!
#1: As far as I know it's not the cheese that people should be afraid of, but the steep hill! Many guys stumble, fall, and hurt themselves seriously!
I'm sure it's been said but Derbyshire is pronounced "Darbyshire". I dunno, we're weird like that
Absolutely. At least he didn't have to pronounce Worcestershire the English way. They pronounce that very differently in the US!
drpepperyumm and Leicestershire... and Berkshire...and Reading...and Gloucestershire. Why do we even bother? :P
Darby was how it was often spelled in medieval times, which explains it :) but also we're just weird =p
You left out one of the coolest traditions ever! At midnight on Easter Sunday two church congregations in Vrontados on the Greek island, Chios fire thousands of rockets at each others church towers with the aim of hitting the opposing church's bell.
oh god... the cheese thing sounds awful.
You should try it, you might break a bone.
I live in Gloucester and it's stupid XD people break legs all the time
Psyonicgaming Well people need something to teach them not to be insane!
Killerdp234 I guess! :D
I see your cheese, and raise you a clown parade.
That was a worthy "mind blowing question". Very interesting answer.
You pronounced derbyshire wrong
Got really excited to hear Corpus Christi mentioned even if it wasn't to note any of our strange local traditions, the likes of which I'm not sure we have.
Is there a scientific reason why we miss people?
Look up Oxytocin.
Physiologically, it's caused by oxytocin withdrawal. Evolutionarily, it's because if people miss us, they're motivated to come looking if we're gone, which is good for our survival as a whole.
For beginners, it is mostly caused by anticipating the recoil.
I see what you did there...
Great Video helped me procrastinate studying :)
The tomato-throwing festival goes on my bucket list because why the hell not.
Hey, Eeyore's birthday made it on the list! Didn't even occur to me that that was a weird local tradition haha, but I guess it totally is!
I live in a town called Ottery St. Mary in the UK and every year on the 5th November we celebrate Tar Barrels which involves people running with barrels filled with tar on their backs up and down the streets. Oh yeah... these barrels are also set on fire.
Did you ever finally have that pork chop party?
I got that joke about Woodstock 99 :).... at least I'm not old enough to get "Don't eat the brown acid" ;-)
I grew up in Rome, NY. I totally get the Woodstock '99 joke!
I was hoping for the Emma Crawford Coffin Races- Manitou Springs, CO
Okay the jumping over babies thing is just...just weird. My question is who ever had this idea and was like, "Yes, yes THIS."
Fort Bragg is my hometown; and I forgot we had a festival for the big axeman. Really cool to see it talked about.
Showing a photo of tower bridge takes away some of the awesomeness of Bridge Day.
that last mind blowing question was mind blowing indeed!
In my hometown we have a festival called the burryman. Where a man walks round the town for several hours covered from head to toe in spikey burrs and if you go out and see him you can get one of his burrs.
Ashbourne, Derbyshire also has a several thousand person football match, where each half of the town tries to get it to the others side :) Derbyshire also has the wells dressing, where the wells in the county are decorated with designs made up of flower petals
That's not a picture of coopers hill, that's Silbury Hill. Just outside of Avesbury. I spent the night on that hill by myself once. (I'm from Texas)
Riga, Latvia hell yeah! Finally my country gets noticed for something!
In Denmark there is a festival called Festelavn, and one of the traditions was to put a black cat in a barrel, hang the barrel like a pinata, let the children form a queue and have them take take turns to beat the barrel with a stick until it bursts(the barrel, not the cat; even though I'm pretty sure the cat wasn't to happy about this either).
Nowadays they don't put cats into the barrel anymore (it is filled with candy) but there still is a cat painted on it in memory of that tradition.
I like how many weird British traditions there are in this list, I am British and quite proud
That cheese rolling is a sport
my hometown Chatham, IL has a sweet corn festival where people throw cow chips (hardened cow manure) as far as they can
I live in Austin, Texas, and I've never heard of celebrating Eeyore's birthday. I really need to get on that, because it sounds adorable
Congrats on 1 million!
I'd like to add one: the annual Blueberry Arts Slug Race in Ketchikan Alaska. Seriously, it's more interesting than it sounds. Kids 12 and under have the opportunity to capture a slug and enter it in the races for a chance to win prizes from sponsors. Ketchikan is home to a variety of large slug species, some of which are surprisingly quick, others of which are... sluggish. The kids who take it seriously hunt down good physical specimens from the quick species, while the ones who phone it in end up watching their entry just sit at the starting line.
That was a really great ending question! I feel enlightened.
In my hometown in NS, Canada there is an annual giant pumpkin race in which people paddle across a lake in hollowed out giant pumpkins painted and decorated in all kinds of ways.
I would love to see more pictures... but fantastic!
Someone might have already said this but the Kinetic sculpture race started because a local artist named Hobart brown had a sculpture made out of a friend's child's bike an was told by the authorities that he had to remove the eyesore and he decided to race the thing down Main Street to the dump and had such a fun time he started challenging other artists to sculpture races and people still carry it on
Krampusnacht would be a good local tradition from Germany/Bavaria to have been in there as well.
I've been to the Cheese Rolliing Festival. You'd think after so many years of hosting it, someone would arrange for portapotties, knowing thousands of people show up, but no. Just the one toilet at the convenience store near the hill, or you could take your chances in the woods.
No mention of Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland, Colorado? Various events include coffin racing, ice turkey bowling, a parade of hearses, and a frozen salmon toss.
Here in Ireland, we have some brilliant local traditions that could take up a mental floss episode of their own!
Wow, I'm surprised Burning man isn't on the list. Weird kinetic sculptures, Massive art cars, And A massive temple that is burned down to the ground every year. It's awesome.
Haha, I live in Gloucester which is where the cheese rolling event happens, was the first thing I thought of when I saw this video and the first thing you mentioned