The second World Tree Hugging Championship starts in Finland in a week. Its name alone can make you want to twist your finger at your temple, but you should not rush with estimates. It turns out that even the strangest tournaments can be important.
Soon, the World Tree Hugging Championship will be held for the second time at the Levi ski resort in Finland TreeHugging. The idea of gathering people for such an activity may seem very strange even at the present time, but this is only at first glance. The organizers of the tournament have clear and noble goals. We tell you about this and other unusual competitions.
With respect to the tree
The World Tree Hugging Championship starts in Finland on August 21, which will be held for the second time. A local family came up with it to save the family forest from deforestation, but in the end their goals became global. The unusual tournament turned into an environmental campaign to attract attention to environmental protection. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic gave additional meaning to the championship, which made people’s hugs dangerous. But there is no such problem with trees.
The rules of the competition are simple. In eight minutes, the participants need to hug as many tree trunks as possible, while giving each of them at least five seconds. But, if speed became the only evaluation criterion, it would be too boring. Additionally, the creativity, sincerity and dedication of the participants are taken into account. The assessments are made by the members of the jury, which includes forest owners and conservationists.
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“There is no right or wrong way to hug a tree. What is important is respect, understanding that a tree is a living being that should be treated as well as our loved ones, ” explains jury member Ritva Saarensalmi.
Due to the pandemic, only local residents will be able to participate in the championship on the territory of Finland. But it’s not just the Finns. The tournament website says that among the “athletes” there will be representatives of Spain, Russia, the USA, Switzerland, Ukraine, who now live in the northern country. Everyone else can join the competitions in an online format. To do this, you need to send a photo of hugs with a tree by August 28, indicating its geographical coordinates. It is also important to describe why you love this particular tree or hugs with trees in general.
Interestingly, last year’s online championship was won by a resident of Moscow named Irina. “There was pure joy and warmth in it, which testified to a deep love for nature,” the organizers described the secret of its success. A photo of a Russian woman with a tree was chosen from more than a hundred images sent from all over the world. Irina was awarded a week-long trip to Finland with the right to participate in the next championship full-time. There will be the same prizes this year.
Air Guitar World Championship
Another strange tournament is held in Finland, which gathers participants from all over the planet. This is the air guitar World Championship, which originated in the circles of rock lovers. Many people have at least once in their lives portrayed themselves as guitarists, imitating the movements of a real musician to some groovy composition. Of course, you don’t need a guitar for this. The first attempts to gather fans of such foolishness for competitions were made by music lovers of Sweden and the USA back in the 1980s. Only there everything stalled, but the Finns who adore heavy music were able to turn around.
Screenshot of the official website of the championship among air guitarists. Photo: Screenshot/Screenshot
In 1996, the organizers of the annual Music Video Festival in the city of Oulu held an air guitar competition just to attract the attention of the public and entertain them. But the interest in this action turned out to be so great that it turned into an annual international championship. Air-guitarists (sothey call its participants) you do not need to know the notes, be able to play the guitar and even have a musical ear. The main thing in their business is to plausibly depict the playing on the strings with maximum expression and artistry. There was even an international association Air Guitar World Championships Network, covering dozens of countries. The tournament also has its own website.
The championship, which takes place in the Market Square of the city of Oulu, has its own rules. First, each participant goes on stage with a minute-long performance, which he prepares in advance. Then he is invited to improvise to any composition that the organizers choose. The rules of the championship have a lot in common with judging in figure skating, wherethe points system is used. They are exhibited by professional guitarists who take into account both the “technique” of performance and the behavior of the participants. They win points with beautiful gestures, grimaces, body movements, and the reaction of the audience. The jury must & laquo; believe»that the participant is really « playing», and not just making faces.
The performance of the Russian who won the 2015 World Air Guitar Championship.
Participants of the tournament can perform in any costumes and make-up, as long as they do not have real guitars in their hands. The winners receive valuable prizes. It is noteworthy that here we already have our own gold. In 2015, the winner of the XX Air Guitar Championship was a Russian Kirill Blumenkranz (Your Daddy), who managed to beat the opponent from the USA by several tenths of a point. Like the tree hugging championship, the guitar one also has its own idea. Its organizers believe that the world will become better and kinder if everyone plays the air guitar. But this year, air guitarists from all over the world will not be able to gather in the city of Oulu due to the pandemic.
“Grave lawlessness”
Some even manage to hold fun competitions among representatives of the most mournful craft. Five years ago, the Hungarian city of Debrecen hosted for the first time a national competition for digging graves at speed. Their organizers then stated that they wanted to draw attention to the profession of a gravedigger, which is becoming less and less popular, although the demand for such services in Hungary is not falling. It turned out that the same problems exist in Russia. This became clear after we held our own championship among the workers of the ritual sphere.
The first “grave” competitions in our country were planned to be held last summer. At first they were planned in Vladivostok, then they were moved to Omsk, but in the end they took place only last spring in Novosibirsk. In May, a forum of ritual business “Necropolis” was held there, within the framework of which a tournament called “strong” was organized near the local crematorium& laquo;Grave lawlessness». Representatives of the funeral business from several regions of Siberia showed their skills in three different disciplines. The program included a battle of florists, a demonstration of the skills of the escort teams, but the most important and spectacular competition was the digging of graves at speed.
Grave Digging tournament in Hungary.
Each of the eight teams consisting of two people had to dig a grave measuring 2 meters in length, 80 centimeters in width and 160 meters in depth. At the same time, not only the speed of work was taken into account, but also the quality. When all the participants put down their shovels, the jury members appreciated the work they had done. They not only examined the graves and measured them with tape measures, but also lowered an empty coffin into each of them. This allowed us to see how freely he enters there. As a result, the team of the Omsk Union of ritual organizations “Heritage” became the best. Its participants, father and son Golovanov, dug a perfect hole in just 38 minutes. The winners received 30 thousand rubles, the silver medalists were awarded 20, and 10 were given for the bronze.
The competition ended almost as in life. The funeral teams brought empty coffins to the graves, lowered them down and buried them. Each of these actions was also evaluated by the jury. As a result, the site looked like a real cemetery, but the appearance of the participants was not at all mourning. Everyone took selfies against the background of neat grave mounds with flowers and happily shared their impressions. Moreover, he even participated in the championshipa groovy DJ. It attracted a lot of media attention and caused a mixed reaction of Russians. Like, you can’t joke with death. But the organizers said that they did not hold the championship at all for the sake of empty fun. It is just as important for them to meet and share their experience as for representatives of any other profession. They wanted to increase the prestige of the gravedigger’s craft and attract young cadres.
Throwing dwarfs and jumping over babies
People with a rich imagination have already come up with so many unusual tournaments that they would be enough for an entire Olympiad. It will take a very long time to tell about each type of “sport” that could enter it. Therefore, we will simply list some of these competitions with a brief description of the rules.
In the late 1990s, a resident of England Phil Shaw I came up with competitions in extreme ironing of linen, which have been held regularly since the beginning of the 2000s. Their meaning is the ability to iron clothes on the ironing board in the most inappropriate place. This can be the top of a mountain, the top of a tree, the bottom of a lake, the roof of a traveling car, or, for example, the sky after a parachute jump. Here the jury evaluates the ingenuity and artistry of the participants, and not the result of ironing.
Another strange invention of the British was the cheese race, which takes place on Cooper’s Hill near the city of Gloucester. Its rules are very simple. Heads of cheese weighing several kilograms are allowed to roll down the slope, and the task of the participants is to catch up with them and catch them. Due to the fact that many runners leave the race with serious injuries, local authorities have repeatedly tried to ban it or move it to a safer place. But the fans of the tournament still continued to gather on Cooper’s Hill, and every year there are more and more of them.
In the same England and several other countries of the world, bed races are held annually. The task of the participating teams is to cover the distance of 2.4 miles as quickly as possible with beds in their hands. As you can guess, at this moment there are people lying on them who need to keep from falling. First of all, this is just entertainment, but it also brings real benefits. The money collected at such races is sent to charity.
But the Spaniards are ready to risk even their own children for the sake of a strange occupation. Every year, in the small town of Castrillo de Murcia, jumps over babies born in the last year are held. Four babies are put on mattresses, and adult men jump over them. It looks like a lane with live obstacles. Although for the locals it is not even a sport, but an important tradition called “El Colacho”, which originated in 1621. They treat this ritual as something like a baptism. It is believed that it cleanses children from sin and protects them from diseases.
There are also many throwing tournaments of all kinds in the world. In the UK, every year there is a championship, the participants of which knock down Yorkshire puddings with black pudding. In Australia, people of small stature are thrown at a distance, of course, from among the volunteers. Tuna throwing competitions are also held there. A mobile phone throwing tournament has been held in Finland since 2000.Throwing a huge log is very popular in Scotland. It must be thrown so that it turns over in the air and ends up on the ground in a certain position. In general, this is one of the disciplines included in the traditional Games of the highlanders. In 1889, they were held at the World Exhibition in Paris, and according to legend, it was under the impression of them that the baron Pierre De Coubertin decided to create a modern Olympic movement.