🧐 Curious Events Day - 9th October 2025 👽️

Rachel_Scope

I absolutely love the weird and wonderful, so when I realised it was curious events day coming up I knew I had to write something about it.

Curious Events

The Bellybutton Festival - "Hokkai Heso Matsuri" - Japan 28 - 29 July

This festival began in Furano back in 1969 as a way to bring people together. Over the years it has become more and more popular, with the first festival involving 11 bellybutton dancers to 5000 dancers in 2024! Thousands turn up to watch the colourful display which runs over 2 days. The dancers compete for prizes in various categories so they need to show their innovative moves! Here's a video showing the 'Authentic Belly Dance'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-OflQB8pDQ&t=194s

Sechseläuten (The 6 o'clock ringing of the bells) - Switzerland Third Monday in April

This tradition goes back to the 16th century and is a way to bring in the beginning of spring. The City Council decided that work should stop an hour later in spring so they began to ring the second largest bell - the Grossmünster - at 6pm to announce the beginning of spring. Now, onto the snowman! This is the Böögg, and it stands on top of a large pyre which is set on fire at precisely 6pm as a symbol of the end of winter. To make it even more impressive, the head is filled with fireworks. They believe that the faster the head explodes, the better the summer will be! The Böögg wasn't a feature of Sechseläuten until the 19th century. Before this, they were tied to wagons and pulled through the streets by youths.

Curious Happenings

The Dancing Plague of 1518

Some of you may have heard of this, or something similar as this is one of a few dancing plagues in history. In Strasbourg, France, hundreds of people began dancing uncontrollably for around 2 months! It started with a Mrs Troffea who began dancing in the street until she collapsed. She had a rest and then started dancing again. Within a week, more than 30 others joined her, not even stopping when they were injured. The civic and religious leaders came up with a plan to stop it…more dancing! They brought in professional dancers and musicians which, believe it or not, made things worse. The number of involuntary dancers increased to 400, with many dying. At the time, explanations ranged from demonic possession to having blood that was too hot. More modern suggestions include consuming bread with fungal disease which causes convulsions, and a form of mass hysteria. What do you think?

The Kentucky Meat Shower

In 1876 in Kentucky, USA, a farmer's wife was outside when she was startled by a large chunk of meat falling to the ground next to her. It looked like it had been torn from an animal. For several minutes pieces of raw meat fell around her and her cat began feasting on the surprise treats! The shower left an area 100 yards long and 50 yards wide littered with flesh. People and reporters swarmed on the area, with some even eating the meat and declaring it as tasting like mutton. Scientists were confused - they knew it was meat, but what kind? There was also the question of where the meat came from. One suggestion was a form of meteor shower, another was that it was chunks of people who'd had an accident with a knife and got caught in a whirlwind! The most probable explanation is that a flock of vultures had eyes too big for their belly and regurgitated their last meal. Lovely 😅. Do you have any ideas?

What do you think of these strange events? Do you have any explanation for the curious happenings?

I'd love to hear about any curious events that you know about!

Albus_Scope

I'm loving this! I may have to look into the Bellybutton festival more. So very silly. 😆