fun Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Worldwide Weird Holidays

Today is Taffy Sculpting Day on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. It is the first competition in the city’s annual Weird Week.

According to organizers, today’s “wacky, but not tacky” contest challenges participants to build a work of art from saltwater taffy. One year, an entrant modeled a Ferris wheel from the candy.

Tuesday is French Fry Sculpting Day. Potato Elvis has been a fan favorite in the past.

“That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles” Contest takes place on Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, artists’ material consists of a giant cookie.

Can there be any losers when you get to eat your mistakes?

Also on Wednesday is the “Ears Looking at You” Contest, an attempt to revive the dying art of ear wiggling.

Thursday is Paper Clip Sculpting Day. (Note: don’t eat your mistakes.)

On Friday, the Miss and Mister Miscellaneous Pageant welcomes those who’ve always wanted to be in a talent show but missed out or didn’t make the cut. Age groups are 5 and under, 6 to 8, 9 to 12, teens and adults.

Also on Friday, the Little Miss and Little Mister Chaos Pageant invites children from 3 to 5 years old to sit on a stage and make as much noise as they can by banging pots and pans together, with rock music urging them to greater effort. (Pots and pans are provided.)

We’re guessing the creator of that last contest won’t be too popular with parents when their kids want to recreate the fun at home.

Have a Happy Taffy Sculpting Day and a wonderfully Weird Week!

Today is the ninth annual International Pillow Fight Day, a holiday that encourages us to play like children on a grand scale. The event has gained momentum since its inception in 2008 and is now celebrated in more than 100 countries around the world. It always takes place on the first Saturday of April.

International Pillow Fight Day is part of what’s known as the urban playground movement. The founders explain:

One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously celebrating public spaces in our cities as our ‘urban living rooms.’ The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.

If you’re in the Western hemisphere, you’re in luck. Many pillow fights take place in the afternoon. (In New York City and Toronto, for example, the fights start at 3 pm. Check pillowfightday.com for a fight near you.)

We thought it might whet your appetite to see the festivities that have already taken place today.