Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

A man pours mud water on the head of his girl friend during the Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach in Boryeong, South Korea, Friday, July 18, 2014. The annual mud festival features mud wrestling and mud sliding. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

A man dressed in a traditional Perchten costume and mask performs during a Perchten festival in the western Austrian village of Huben November 22, 2014. Each year in November and January people in the western Austria regions dress up in Perchten (also known in some regions as Krampus or Tuifl) costumes and parade through the streets to perform a 1,500 year-old pagan ritual to disperse the ghosts of winter. (Photo by Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters)

Masked men ride in a morning procession as part of the “Cavalhadas” festival in Pirenopolis, Brazil, Sunday, May 19, 2013. The popular festival is a tradition that was introduced in the 1800's by a Portuguese priest to mark the the ascension of Christ. The 3-day festival reenacts the Christian knights' medieval defeat of the Moors. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)

The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural festival in Iloilo City, Philippines held on the fourth Sunday of January, or right after the Sinulog In Cebu and the Ati-Atihan in Aklan. It is held both to honor the Santo Niño and to celebrate the arrival on Panay of Malay settlers and the subsequent selling of the island to them by the Atis. wiki

A man representing the devil leaps over babies during the festival of El Colacho on June 10, 2012 in Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos, Spain. The festival, held on the first Sunday after Corpus Cristi, represents the devil taking away original sin from the newly born babies by leaping over them. (Photo by Denis Doyle)

“Baby jumping (El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish practice dating back to 1620 that takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos. During the act – known as El Salto del Colacho (the devil's jump) or simply El Colacho – men dressed as the Devil (known as the Colacho) jump over babies born during the previous twelve months of the year who lie on mattresses in the street. ... The festival has been rated as one of the most dangerous in the world”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A man representing the devil leaps over babies during the festival of El Colacho on June 26, 2011 in Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos, Spain. The festival, held on the first Sunday after Corpus Cristi, represents the devil taking away original sin from the newly born babies by leaping over them. (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images)