Gorehabba is a one-day village ritual in southern India during which people throw cow dung at each other to pay tribute to the deity Beereshwara Swamy – the local god believed to be born from cow dung.

The Taimatsu Akashi Festival is a historical Japanese fire festival, rooted in a 400-year-old tradition honoring fallen soldiers. The main attraction is the dramatic sight of approximately 30 massive torches (Ohtaimatsu), some reaching 10 meters tall and 3 tons in weight, being set ablaze on a mountainside as the powerful beat of Taimatsu Taiko drums echoes, creating a breathtaking, fiery spectacle.

Every November full moon, thousands of sky lanterns rise over a valley east of Chiang Mai. The CAD Khomloy festival stages the Lanna ritual of Yi Peng — monk-chanted ceremony, drums, a Lanna buffet, then the mass launch at nightfall. Here’s how tickets, tiers and shuttles work, and how to make the most of one golden night.

The Chichibu Yomatsuri (Night Festival) is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage event featuring six immense, decorative parade floats. Its main attraction is the dramatic two-hour ascent of these floats up the steep Dango Hill, which requires collective human power and is synchronized perfectly with a spectacular 2-hour fireworks display.

The Şeb-i Arûs (“Wedding Night”) festival is an annual commemoration of the death of Sufi mystic and poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Its most famous feature is the Sema ceremony, the mesmerizing, UNESCO-recognized spiritual dance performed by the Whirling Dervishes. During the Sema, dervishes in white robes and tall hats spin counter-clockwise, with their right palm turned up to receive divine grace and their left palm turned down to convey it to the earth.

Kasama Akutai Matsuri is a one-day Shinto event that turns cursing into a holy ritual. To cleanse themselves of a year’s sins and misfortune, spectators loudly shout curses at 13 men dressed as tengu (long-nosed mountain goblins) on a 4-km procession route.