Since it’s the festive season here in Malaysia, I thought of researching how other countries celebrate their festivities around the world. I’ll go for the interesting ones that connects people all around.
JANUARY
Thaipusam, Batu Caves, Malaysia
Thaipusam “Thaipoosam” (Tamil: தைப்பூசம், Taippūcam ?) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February). It is mainly observed in countries where there is a significant presence of Tamil community such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, South Africa, Guadalupe, Reunion, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar. The word Thaipusam is a combination of the name of the month, Thai, and the name of a star, Pusam. 
This particular star is at its highest point during the festival.The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a Vel “spear” so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.
FEBRUARY
Battle of the Oranges, Ivrea, Italy
The core celebration is based on a locally famous Battle of the Oranges that involves some thousands of townspeople, divided into nine combat teams, who throw oranges at each other – with considerable violence – during the traditional carnival days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. 
The carnival takes place in February: it ends on the night of Shrove Tuesday with a solemn funeral. Traditionally, at the end of the silent march that closes the carnival the “General” says goodbye to everyone with the classical phrase in dialect “arvedse a giobia a ‘n bot“, translated as “we’ll see each other on Thursday at one”, referring to the Thursday the carnival will start the next year.
Hadaka Matsuri Festival, Japan
A Hadaka Matsuri (裸祭り “Naked Festival”?) is a type of Japanese festival, or matsuri, in which participants wear a minimum amount of clothing; usually just a Japanese loincloth (called fundoshi), sometimes with a short happi coat, and rarely completely naked.
Naked festivals are held in dozens of places throughout Japan every year, usually in the summer or winter. The most famous festival is the Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsuri held at Saidaiji Temple in Okayama, where the festival originated. Every year, over 9,000 men participate in this festival in hopes of gaining luck for the entire year.
MARCH
Holi Festival, India
Holi (English pronunciation: /ˈhoʊliː/) (Sanskrit: होली) is a spring festival also known as the festival of colours or the festival of love. It is an ancient Hindu religious festival which has become popular with non-Hindus in many parts of South Asia, as well as people of other communities outside Asia.
APRIL
Kanama Matsuri (Penis Festival) Japan
The Shinto Kanamara Matsuri (かなまら祭り?, “Festival of the Steel Phallus”) is held each spring at the Kanayama Shrine (金山神社Kanayama-jinja?) in Kawasaki, Japan. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis, as the central theme of the event, is reflected in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.
The Kanamara Matsuri is centred on a local penis-venerating shrine. The legend being that a sharp-toothed demon (vagina dentata) hid inside the vagina of a young woman and castrated two young men on their wedding nights As a result, the young woman sought help from a blacksmith, who fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon’s teeth, which led to the enshrinement of the item. The Kanayama Shrine was popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection from sexually transmitted infections.
Songkran Festival, Thailand
The Songkran festival (Thai: สงกรานต์, pronounced [sǒŋ.krāːn], listen; from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti, or literally “astrological passage”) is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year’s Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. 
The traditional water pouring is meant as a symbol of washingall of the bad away and is sometimes filled with fragrant herbs when celebrated in the traditional manner
MAY
Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, Gloucester, England
The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake is an annual event held on the Spring Bank Holiday at Cooper’s Hill, near Gloucester in England. It is traditionally by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth, but now people from all over the world take part. The Guardian called it a “world-famous event”, and indeed, in 2013, a 27-year-old American and a 39-year-old Japanese each won one of the four races. The event takes its name from the hill on which it occurs. The event is traditional. In recent years, it has been managed, in a quasi-official manner, but since 2010 the event has taken place spontaneously without any management.
JUNE
Glastonbury Festival, United Kingdom
Glastonbury Festival (originally Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival; formerly Glastonbury Fair; Glastonbury CND Festival; current formal title Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts) is a five-day music festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemporary music, the festival hosts dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and other arts. It is organised by Michael Eavis on his own land, Worthy Farm in Pilton. 
Leading pop and rock artists have headlined, alongside thousands of others appearing on smaller stages and performance areas. Films and albums recorded at Glastonbury have been released, and the festival receives extensive television and newspaper coverage. Glastonbury is the largest greenfield festival in the world, and is now attended by around 175,000 people, requiring extensive infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water, and electricity supply. The majority of staff are volunteers, helping the festival to raise millions of pounds for good causes.
JULY
The Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea
The Boryeong Mud Festival is an annual festival which takes place during the summer in Boryeong, a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea. The first Mud Festival was staged in 1998 and, by 2007, the festival attracted 2.2 million visitors to Boryeong. The mud is taken from the Boryeong mud flats, and trucked to the Daecheon beach area, where it is used as the centrepiece of the ‘Mud Experience Land’.
The mud is considered rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics. The festival was originally conceived as a marketing vehicle for Boryeong mud cosmetics. Although the festival takes place over a period of around two weeks, it is most famous for its final weekend, which is popular with Korea’s western population. The final weekend of the festival usually falls on the second weekend in July.
San Fermin festival
The Running of the Bulls (in Spanish encierro, from the verb encerrar, to corral, to enclose) is a practice that involves running in front of a small group of cattle, typically six, of the toro bravo breed that have been let loose on a course of a sectioned-off subset of a town’s streets. 
The most famous running of the bulls is that of the eight-day festival of Sanfermines in honour of Saint Fermin in Pamplona, although they are held in towns and villages across Spain, Portugal, in some cities in Mexico, in San José Festival held in Trujillo, Peru, Mesquite, Nevada,southern France during the summer. The origin of this event comes from the need to transport the bulls from the off-site corrals where they had spent the night, to the bullring where they would be killed in the evening. Youngsters would jump among them to show off their bravado. In Pamplona and other places, the six bulls in the event are still those that will feature in the afternoon bullfight of the same day.
AUGUST
La Tomatina (Spanish pronunciation: [la tomaˈtina]) is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located 30 km / 19 miles from the Mediterranean, in which participants throw tomatoes and get involved in this tomato fight purely for fun. It is held on the last Wednesday of August, during the week of festivities of Buñol.
SEPTEMBER
The Saracen joust of Arezzo, Italy
The Saracen joust of Arezzo (Giostra del Saracino, Giostra ad burattum) is an ancient game of chivalry. It dates back to the Middle Ages. It was born as an exercise for military training. This tournament was regularly held in Arezzo between the 16th century and the end of the 17th century, when memorable jousts in baroque style were organized. The game went on for the whole Modern Age, having an important social function within the urban community. The joust was indeed a great public event during the visit of important authorities (sovereigns, princes, etc.), or it was used to make certain civil feasts more solemn (e.g. carnivals and nobless weddings). The joust – which became a typical tradition of Arezzo at the beginning of the 17th century – declined progressively during the 18th century and eventually disappeared, at least in its “noble” version. After a brief popular revival between the 18th and 19th century, the joust was interrupted after 1810 to reappear only in 1904 in the wake of the Middle Ages reappraisal operated by Romanticism. Finally, the joust was definitely restored in 1931 as a form of historical re-enactment set in the 14th century, and quickly acquired a competitive character.
OCTOBER
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a colourful event held over a nine-day period in October, celebrating the Chinese community’s belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. 
Though the origins of the festival are unclear, it is commonly thought that the festival was bought to Phuket by a wandering Chinese opera group who fell ill with malaria while performing on the island. They decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet and pray to the Nine Emperor Gods to ensure purification of the mind and body. To everyone’s amazement the opera group made a complete recovery. The people celebrated by holding a festival that was meant to honour the gods as well as express the people’s happiness at surviving what was, in the 19th century, a fatal illness. Subsequently the festival has grown and developed into a spectacular yearly event that is attended by thousands with participants flying in from China and other Asian destinations.
NOVEMBER
The Monkey Buffet Festival is held annually in Thailand to promote tourism. In 2007, the festival included giving fruits and vegetables to the local monkey population of 2,000 in Lopburi province north of Bangkok. The festival was described as one of the strangest festivals by London’s The Guardian newspaper along with Spain’s baby-jumping festival. A photograph from the Monkey Buffet Festival at Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi Province shows a monkey trying to get at fresh fruit and vegetable captured in blocks of ice.
DECEMBER
The festival commemorates the death anniversary of the 13th century Sufi saint Mevlana. He is more commonly referred to as Rumi in the West. He is known throughout the world for his exquisite poems and words of wisdom, which have been translated into many languages. Mevlana was a Muslim, but not an orthodox type. His doctrine advocates unlimited tolerance, positive reasoning, goodness, charity and awareness through love. In 2013, the ceremonies will be held between 7-17 December. This year tickets will be sold online by the Province of Konya, Directorate of Culture and Tourism. Most of these tickets are usually bought by the tour agencies. As thousands of people from all around the world travel for this special occasion to Konya, it is advisable to book your tickets and accommodation well in advance through a trusted agency. Travel tips: Do not forget that this is a religious and spiritual festival, so you should dress accordingly. Shorts should not be worn and women might consider wearing a scarf during certain ceremonies.
Source: http://turkey.com/discover/festivals-specials-days/mevlana-festival/#sthash.YaiKdn8f.dpuf