Craziest Food Festivals sounds like a joke topic, but once you start looking into it, you’ll realize they’re everywhere — the crazier, the better.

Bibimbap Festival

In a Korean town in Jeonju, their “mixed rice” dish is a hearty serve of rice topped with raw beef, a rainbow of vegetables, a raw egg and gochujang sauce (韩国的辣椒酱) so much. They take four days out of October to celebrate it.

Like any festival there’s music, entertainment and magic, but making it that little bit different is the bibimbap that’s whipped (搅拌) up in a big bowl by dozens of chefs and served to over 400 people.

Waikiki Spam Jam (怀基基午餐肉节)

Who knew this canned meat had so much love?   Well, it turns out that a can of Spam is the go-to item in Hawaii, along with a grass skirt and garland (花环). The people of Hawaii love Spam so much that they even spend a day in May serving out the best Spam, a type of cheap canned meat made mainly from pork.

Bessieres Easter Egg Festival

At Easter time, for those in the French town of Bessieres it’s all about an egg far less sweet.

Here they celebrate the holiday by getting dozens of chefs to make one large omelette (煎蛋卷) — 15, 000 eggs strong — for the townsfolk (市民).

Potato Days Festival

This festival actually takes place in Barnesville, Minnesota (明尼苏达州), the US. Over the last Friday and Saturday in August the town celebrates its potato-growing skills by hosting potato picking and peeling contests, as well as a Miss Tater Tot pageant (盛典) for five- and six-year-old girls.

The Irish have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 every year for over 1,000 years. On this day, Irish families would attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon.

Patrick, born in Roman Britain, was brought to Ireland at the age of 16. He was thought to bring Christianity to its people. During the centuries after Patrick’s death that is believed to be on March 17,461, the story of his life became popular in the Irish culture.

However, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade (游行) took place not in Ireland but in America. Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17,1601 in Florida. More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched in New York City on March 17, 1772 to honor the Irish saint (圣人). Interest in the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early American cities grew from there. In 1848, several New York Irish societies decided to unite their parades to form one official New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Today, the parade is the world’s oldest parade and the largest in the United States. Each year, nearly 3 million people watch the parade, which takes more than five hours. In 2020, the New York City parade was one of the first major city events that were canceled as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic (流行病) and people are still not allowed to attend it this year.

Although North America is home to the largest one, St. Patrick’s Day is also celebrated around the world, including Japan, Singapore and Russia. In 1995, the Irish government began to use interest in St. Patrick’s Day to drive tourism and show Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the world.